Ensuring the Right to Be Heard

Publication
Once a case is filed in court, it becomes the court’s responsibility to manage the case toward a just and timely resolution. This inherently entails an obligation for every aspect of the court, and of all of its staff, to provide guidance to self-… MORE

Redesigning Divorce

Publication
Through our Court Compass project, IAALS has been rethinking legal processes by listening to and engaging the people who actually use the system. In four states across the country, we brought self-represented litigants and other legal… MORE

Preventing Whack-a-Mole Management of Consumer Debt Cases

Publication
Americans are drowning in debt, with an estimated $4 trillion or roughly $13,000 for every man, woman, and child in the United States—large numbers of whom struggle to repay their debts, especially debts incurred to cover routine living expenses,… MORE

Transforming Our Civil Justice System for the 21st Century: The Road to Civil Justice Reform

Publication
In July 2016, the Conference of Chief Justices (CCJ) and the Conference of State Court Administrators (COSCA) endorsed 13 recommendations for improving the American civil justice system. The report and recommendations, titled Call to Action:… MORE

Public Perspectives on Trust and Confidence in the Courts

Publication
Researchers have frequently studied public trust and confidence in the legal system, with a large body of survey and public polling data highlighting issues like perceived racial and gender bias, socioeconomic bias, and concerns over the role… MORE

Building a Better Bar

Publication
The legal profession has never had a clear, explicit understanding of the minimum competence needed to practice law and how it should be tested on the bar exam (or through other licensing approaches). In this report from our Building a Better Bar… MORE

Pandemic Positives

Publication
In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, stay-at-home orders, layoffs, closures, and social distancing have upended every aspect of our society, including our justice system. Courts and legal service providers had to quickly develop new processes for… MORE

Initial Discovery Protocols

Publication
These Initial Discovery Protocols for Business Interruption Insurance Disputes Arising from the COVID-19 Pandemic and Similar Public Health Threats (Pandemic Protocols) provide a new pretrial procedure that aims to reduce conflict and cost and… MORE

Reforming Our Civil Justice System: A Report on Progress and Promise

Publication
Since 2007, IAALS and the American College of Trial Lawyers Task Force on Discovery and Civil Justice have partnered to study cost and delay in America’s civil justice system, and propose solutions. One of the major themes that emerged was that our… MORE

Ahead of the Curve: Turning Law Students into Lawyers

Publication
In recent years, law schools have been the subject of great scrutiny—by media, by the profession, by law students, and even by legal educators within the schools—about the quality of legal education and training they offer students. Educating… MORE