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Access to Justice
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September 26, 2024
Pro Bono Attorney Hub Paladin Teams With JusticeServer
Free legal assistance platform Paladin announced a partnership with JusticeServer, a case management solution, to connect volunteers and clients seamlessly between the two software providers.
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September 25, 2024
Ohio Judge Removed For Jailing People Over Court Costs
The Ohio Supreme Court removed a state municipal judge from the bench and suspended him from practicing law for 18 months after he jailed two people for failing to pay court costs and coerced 14 others into paying fines and costs by threatening to lock them up without due process.
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September 19, 2024
8th Circ. Says No Detention Time Limit For Deportees
The Eighth Circuit has ruled that a district court wrongly determined that the due process rights of an Ivory Coast native convicted of robbery were violated after he spent a year in federal custody waiting for a removal decision.
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September 19, 2024
Pro Bono Platform Launches Election Protection Portal
Free legal assistance platform Paladin announced the launch of a new volunteer portal for attorneys and other professionals focused on election protection.
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September 06, 2024
Baltimore, DC Legal Wins Help Curb Police Property Seizures
In a span of less than two weeks this summer, a coalition of nonprofit civil rights litigators and private pro bono counsel notched a pair of legal victories in cases over two mid-Atlantic city police departments’ property seizure. Lawyers have expressed hope the impact could reach past their communities.
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September 06, 2024
New Public Counsel Leader On Her Vision To Advance Justice
Kathryn Eidmann has a vision for the future of Public Counsel, the nation's largest provider of pro bono legal services, as she takes over as the organization's new leader: to use its focus on individual client advocacy to advance its more systemic goals for racial and economic justice.
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September 06, 2024
'He Says, She Says' In Harvey Weinstein's America
The controversial decision by New York's highest court to overturn Harvey Weinstein's sexual assault conviction has some lawmakers focusing intense new scrutiny on centuries-old legal jurisprudence barring evidence of a defendant's criminal propensity.
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September 05, 2024
Wash. Bar Backs Experiment For Nonlawyers To Practice
The Washington State Bar wants to relax the rules on who can practice law, in what it hopes will allow businesses not run by lawyers the chance to innovate how the industry provides legal services and expand who is able to afford them.
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August 28, 2024
LA Atty Accused Of Bilking Inmates With False Freedom Hope
A Los Angeles attorney accused of raking in thousands of dollars by giving inmates and their families intentionally misleading information about their chances for resentencing after convictions for violent crimes faces an 18-count disciplinary complaint filed this week by the State Bar of California.
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August 19, 2024
Ariz. Sheriff Can't Ax Racial Profiling Injunction, 9th Circ. Says
The Ninth Circuit on Monday kept in place a permanent injunction in a class action alleging the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office in Arizona racially profiled Latinos for traffic stops under the guise of immigration enforcement, saying the district court was within its powers to assign an independent monitor.
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August 19, 2024
Philly To Pay $25M For Breaking Prison Conditions Settlement
A federal judge has ordered Philadelphia to set aside $25 million to ramp up recruitment and retention efforts for the city's Department of Prisons, just over a month after the court found the city in contempt of a settlement in a lawsuit over prison conditions.
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August 15, 2024
New Study Shows No Link Between Bail Reform, Crime Rates
Bail reform has had no statistical impact on crime rates across the country, according to a recent study released by the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law.
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August 15, 2024
Feds, NJ Judiciary Reach Deal Over Language Access Bias
The New Jersey judiciary has reached a settlement to resolve a federal investigation into alleged discrimination against non-English speakers in Monmouth County court, agreeing to increase training and translation services systemwide, according to an announcement Thursday.
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August 14, 2024
9th Circ. Appears Skeptical Of Ex-Assistant DA's Firing Suit
The Ninth Circuit on Wednesday seemed chilly to a former San Francisco assistant district attorney's claim that he was booted from his post as punishment for blowing the whistle on misconduct, with judges saying he hadn't drawn a clear connection between speaking out and getting fired.
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August 13, 2024
LA Prosecutor Sues DA Over Handling Of Sex Assault Case
A Los Angeles County deputy district attorney has filed a whistleblower retaliation lawsuit in California state court against District Attorney George Gascón and Los Angeles County, alleging that he was targeted for exposing misconduct within the DA's office over its handling of a high-profile sex assault case.
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August 13, 2024
Honduran Woman's Rape Case Against ICE Dismissed Again
A Honduran immigrant waited too long to sue over claims that a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent raped her repeatedly for seven years, a Connecticut federal court ruled for the second time, once again finding in favor of the defendants after the Second Circuit revived the case in 2023.
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August 09, 2024
Not Enough Data To Find Jury Racial Disparity, 2nd Circ. Says
The Second Circuit declined to find that the Southern District of New York's jury selection procedures cause underrepresentation of minorities, but welcomed "a future challenge with greater proof" against the district's voter registration-based system.
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August 09, 2024
NYC Prisons Face Contempt Bid Over Missed Medical Service
Inmates of the New York City prison system have rekindled a class action against the city's Department of Correction with a contempt motion claiming the department has failed to follow a court order to provide prisoners with better access to healthcare services.
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August 07, 2024
Relativity Adds AI Product To Its Justice For Change Program
E-discovery and legal software provider Relativity announced Wednesday that its social impact program Justice for Change will now include free access to its generative artificial intelligence product aiR for review beginning in September.
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August 06, 2024
Texas Justices Look To Non-Attys To Narrow 'Justice Gap'
In seeking to make legal help accessible to low-income residents of the Lone Star State, the Texas Supreme Court on Tuesday laid the groundwork for allowing nonattorneys to provide limited legal services, while remaining silent on the issue of nonlawyer ownership in organizations that provide legal services.
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July 31, 2024
Lawsuit Aims To Save Bail Overhaul In Memphis, Tenn.
A Memphis, Tennessee, criminal justice advocacy group, Just City, reached a deal with local officials in 2022 to soften cash bail rules at local jails, but this year, the conservative state Legislature passed a law to force a return to the old cash bail system, and now Just City is suing to save the deal.
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July 31, 2024
Cities, States Weigh Homeless Policies Post-Grants Pass
In the weeks since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that an Oregon city's camping ban doesn't amount to cruel and unusual punishment of its unhoused residents, municipal and state governments are rethinking their approach to homeless encampments and weighing newfound authority.
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July 29, 2024
Wash. Says At-Home Rape Kit Law Targets Harm, Not Speech
Washington pushed back against a company's bid to pause enforcement of a ban on the sale of "DIY" DNA collection kits to sexual assault survivors, saying the prohibition is meant to prevent victims from being tricked into thinking the kit results will stand up in court.
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July 26, 2024
Digital Guides And Plain Language Key To Court Accessibility
Court forms should be designed with self-represented litigants in mind, researchers at the University of Ottawa said in a recent report, which implores judicial stakeholders to consider introducing guided pathways on digital forms and to massage legal jargon into easily understood, plain-language instructions.
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July 25, 2024
Public Counsel Promotes Longtime Civil Rights Atty To CEO
Public Counsel's newly named President and CEO Kathryn Eidmann went to law school focused on becoming a professor, wanting eventually to write academic works on access to justice and other legal issues. That all changed during her first clinic in law school, she told Law360 Pulse in an interview.
Expert Analysis
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911 Call Scrutiny Should Not Be Used To Identify Suspects
Though the use of 911 call analysis to identify suspects continues to spread across the country, this scientifically unproven method opens the door to wrongful convictions, so prosecutors should review investigations that relied on the technique, and lawmakers should ban it nationwide, say Miriam Krinsky at Fair and Just Prosecution and Isabelle Cohn at the Innocence Project.
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6 Practice Pointers For Pro Bono Immigration Practice
An attorney taking on their first pro bono immigration matter may find the law and procedures beguiling, but understanding key deadlines, the significance of individual immigration judges' rules and specialized aspects of the practice can help avoid common missteps, says Steven Malm at Haynes Boone.
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8th Circ. Redistricting Ruling Imperils The Voting Rights Act
The Eighth Circuit’s recent ruling in Arkansas NAACP v. Arkansas Board of Apportionment, holding that private plaintiffs don't have standing to sue in redistricting cases, creates a circuit split, and, if upheld, would nearly destroy the Voting Rights Act, says William Brewer at Brewer Storefront.
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Justices May Clarify Expert Witness Confrontation Confusion
After oral arguments in Smith v. Arizona, the U.S. Supreme Court seems poised to hold that expert witness opinions that rely on out-of-court testimonial statements for their factual basis are unconstitutional, thus resolving some of the complications created by the court’s confrontation clause jurisprudence, says Richard Friedman at the University of Michigan Law School.
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Immigration Detention Should Offer Universal Legal Counsel
Given the large backlog of immigration court cases and the more than 70% of people in immigration detention without counsel in 2023, the system should establish a universal right to federally funded representation for anyone facing deportation, similar to the public defender model, say Laura Lunn and Shaleen Morales at the Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network.
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UX Research And Design Is Crucial For Justice Technologies
It’s essential that new access-to-justice digital tools incorporate user experience research and design methodologies to enhance access and accessibility, improve efficiency in processes and service delivery, and reduce risk, says Sarah Mauet at Innovation for Justice.
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Higher Juror Compensation Trend Is Good For Justice System
This year a number of states increased daily juror compensation rates after decades of stagnation — a positive development that facilitates more representative juries, aids decision making and boosts public confidence in the legal system, says Cary Silverman at Shook Hardy.
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The Pop Culture Docket: Judge D'Emic On Moby Grape
The 1968 Moby Grape song "Murder in My Heart for the Judge" tells the tale of a fictional defendant treated with scorn by the judge, illustrating how much the legal system has evolved in the past 50 years, largely due to problem-solving courts and the principles of procedural justice, says Kings County Supreme Court Administrative Judge Matthew D'Emic.
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6th Circ. Case Eases Path For Some Excessive Force Claims
The U.S. Supreme Court recently declined to hear Fox v. Campbell, leaving in place the Sixth Circuit’s holding that excessive force claims based on police shootings can be founded on the Fourth Amendment even if no one is hit by gunfire — which will be helpful for some civil rights litigants, says Sharon Fairley at the University of Chicago Law School.
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In Culley, Justices Unlikely To Set New Forfeiture Standards
As the U.S. Supreme Court considers Culley v. Marshall — a case with the potential to reshape civil asset forfeiture practices — the justices' recent comments at oral argument suggest that, while some of them may be concerned about civil forfeiture abuse, they are unlikely to significantly change the status quo, say attorneys at Jackson Walker.
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The Meaning Of 'Bail' Has Strayed Far From Its Legal Roots
As the pretrial system faces increasing scrutiny nationwide, states must recognize that imposing financial bail conditions harms communities, and that pretrial release practices must be realigned with foundational American legal principles — including the idea that money-based detention violates due process, says Matt Alsdorf at the Center for Effective Public Policy.
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Learning From San Francisco's Jury Pay Pilot Program
A pilot program in San Francisco shows that increasing compensation for lower-income jurors can foster more diverse juries and boost access to justice — and provides lessons for establishing similar projects in jurisdictions around the U.S., say San Francisco Treasurer José Cisneros, District Attorney Brooke Jenkins and Public Defender Mano Raju.
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In Domestic Abuse Case, Justices Must Note Gun Law History
In deciding whether laws prohibiting domestic abusers from possessing firearms are unconstitutional in U.S. v. Rahimi, the U.S. Supreme Court should recognize that history is replete with relevant legal analogues restricting gun ownership, says Sarah Bennett at Sodoma Law.
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The Pop Culture Docket: Judge Espinosa On 'Lincoln Lawyer'
The murder trials in Netflix’s “The Lincoln Lawyer” illustrate the stark contrast between the ethical high ground that fosters and maintains the criminal justice system's integrity, and the ethical abyss that can undermine it, with an important reminder for all legal practitioners, say Judge Adam Espinosa and Andrew Howard at the Colorado 2nd Judicial District Court.
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Civil Legal Aid Cuts Are A Threat To Justice And Prosperity
The U.S. House of Representatives' budget proposal for fiscal year 2024 includes $71 million in cuts to civil legal aid, but the measure overlooks the economic benefits of access to justice and the many ways that opening the courts to more citizens can foster both basic human rights and economic growth, says David Carter at Calloquy.