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Rebecca Love Kourlis Founding Executive Director, IAALS I am so proud to present to you our 2016 Annual Report , capturing a remarkable year in our existence and representing the work of our truly visionary staff. Last year we celebrated our tenth-year …

Brittany Kauffman CEO Mark Staines IAALS Intern In 1791, the Founding Fathers built the right to a trial by jury into the Bill of Rights in the form of the Seventh Amendment. The right to a jury trial was, and still is, seen as a cornerstone of the civil …

Brittany Kauffman CEO The last ten years has seen an intense and almost singular focus on discovery. E-discovery has been a big reason for this, given its impact on the entire discovery process from identification to production. The cost and delay in …

Rebecca Love Kourlis Founding Executive Director, IAALS Judge Neil Gorsuch’s testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing this week underscored the difference between elected officials and judges. He repeatedly declined to answer questions …

James Moliterno Vincent Bradford Professor of Law, Washington and Lee University School of Law Since 1982, I have been an experiential education proponent, but a somewhat unusual one. For my entire 35 years in legal education, I have lived with one foot …

Mark Staines IAALS Intern Last month in Miami, Florida, the Center for Out-of-Court Divorce (COCD), together with IAALS at the University of Denver, received Meritorious Recognition from the ABA Standing Committee on the Delivery of Legal Services in …

Malia Reddick Former Manager, Quality Judges Initiative As reported by the Washington Post , the President is not the only one who has taken on the courts recently: it is also happening in state legislatures around the country. This comes as no surprise …

Brittany Kauffman CEO In July 2016, the Conference of Chief Justices and the Conference of State Court Administrators recognized the important needs of litigants in our state courts and responded by adopting a set of 13 Recommendations focused on ensuring …

Dona Playton Associate Professor and Director, Family and Child Legal Advocacy Clinic, University of Wyoming College of Law Former Director, Honoring Families Initiative A new report conducted by Ecorys UK, Experiences of consumers who may be vulnerable …

Caitlin Anderson Former Legal Assistant Last September, we held our 5th Annual Educating Tomorrow’s Lawyers Conference , where we welcomed approximately 100 legal educators and legal employers from around the country (and the world!) to discuss the …

Brittany Kauffman CEO Mark Staines IAALS Intern Debtor’s prisons have been illegal in the United States for nearly 200 years, and in 1983 the United State Supreme Court’s ruling in  Bearden v. Georgia  again made it clear that judges cannot send people to …

Mark Staines IAALS Intern In every state across the nation, judges in family court regularly deal with challenging custody issues as families proceed through the divorce process. And, recent amendments to Alaska’s divorce laws have added another important …

Mark Staines IAALS Intern New Mexico Supreme Court Chief Justice Charles Daniels had  grim news  for state legislators at his annual State of the Judiciary speech last month: the state’s judicial system may no longer be able to provide New Mexicans with …

Carolyn A. Tyler Former Director of Communications This week’s Denver Post carried a guest commentary by IAALS Executive Director Rebecca Love Kourlis comparing the rule of law and attacks on the judiciary to this year’s Super Bowl. She wrote, “But in the …

Brittany Kauffman CEO Last year, U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Roberts dedicated his  2015 year-end report on the State of the Judiciary  to extolling the new amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. He noted the amendments serve as an …

Carolyn A. Tyler Former Director of Communications Zachary Willis Director of Communications IAALS Releases Blueprint for Judicial Performance Commissions Robust evaluation of judges has a dual purpose. It educates judges on their strengths and weaknesses …

Natalie Anne Knowlton Advisor on Regulatory Innovation Dona Playton Associate Professor and Director, Family and Child Legal Advocacy Clinic, University of Wyoming College of Law Former Director, Honoring Families Initiative The January 2017 edition of …

Brittany Kauffman CEO Later this week at the ABA Midyear Meeting, a panel discussion will focus on the current challenges facing our civil justice system, recommendations for achieving civil justice for all, and how to make these recommendations a reality …

Malia Reddick Former Manager, Quality Judges Initiative Based on its decade of work in the field of judicial performance evaluation (JPE), IAALS was invited to contribute a chapter on this topic to the recently published 8th edition of the American Bar …

Mark Staines IAALS Intern It has been just over a year since substantial changes were made to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, aimed at reducing the high costs and long delays faced by civil court litigants. And, this effort has not been limited to …