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Access to Justice
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April 09, 2024
Mo. Gets OK To Execute Man Repped By Flat-Fee Lawyers
The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to halt the looming execution of a convicted murderer who claimed that his attorneys' flat-fee contracts incentivized them to push him to plead guilty before they secured promises from prosecutors not to pursue a death sentence.
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April 08, 2024
Calif. Legal Aid Group Leader On Fighting For Those With HIV
Matt Foreman, the new executive director of San Francisco's AIDS Legal Referral Panel, talks with Law360 Pulse to discuss the ongoing challenges faced by people living with HIV and how the organization assists them.
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April 05, 2024
Do New Laws Seek To Regulate Charitable Bail, Or End It?
New legislation aimed at curtailing — some say criminalizing — the use of charitable bail is being considered in multiple states, where the bills' advocates say they're necessary to address crime, but bail reform activists insist they perpetuate an inequitable bail system that makes freedom dependent on wealth.
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April 05, 2024
Flat-Fee Representation Fuels Man's Bid To Avoid Execution
As his execution date approaches on April 9, Brian Joseph Dorsey, who was sentenced to death for first-degree murder in Missouri, has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to find that his trial attorneys' flat-flee contracts resulted in inadequate legal representation that has left him doomed to die.
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April 05, 2024
Study Shines Light On Excessive NY Prison Sentences
A recent report shining a light on excessive felony prison sentences handed down by more than 140 trial judges in New York over a 16-year period has experts and advocacy groups calling for increased transparency to help ensure that courts are imposing fair penalties on criminal defendants in the Empire State.
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April 04, 2024
New Leader Discusses The Next Era For NY Federal Defenders
The Federal Defenders of New York has chosen its new leader, elevating its director of strategic litigation to become the first Black woman serving as the federal public defense organization's executive director.
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April 01, 2024
BOP Drops Accreditation Org After IG, Sens. Raise Concerns
The Federal Bureau of Prisons has let its $2.75 million contract with its accreditation organization expire, after a group of Democratic lawmakers and the bureau's watchdog raised concerns that the group wasn't effective or objective.
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March 27, 2024
Associates Help Ga. Prisoner Beat The Odds In Court
When a team of mostly associates at Kirkland & Ellis LLP and Bondurant Mixson & Elmore LLP took on the civil case of a Georgia prisoner who had developed stage 4 hepatitis C as he waited five years for prescribed treatment, they expected they'd have their work cut out for them.
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March 26, 2024
'Landmark' Trans Women Prison Housing Deal Gets Final OK
A Colorado state judge on Tuesday approved a consent decree between the state and a class of transgender women who sued over dangerous housing conditions in state prisons and now hope the plan to accommodate their needs will spread to other states.
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March 25, 2024
Justices Nix Lenient Drug Sentence After 'Safety Valve' Ruling
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday vacated a 100-month sentence given to a woman who pled guilty to drug offenses and remanded the case to the Fourth Circuit after the justices recently clarified which defendants qualify for "safety valve" relief under a 2018 federal law.
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March 22, 2024
MoFo Helps Secure $2B For Calif.'s Forgotten Students
Morrison & Foerster recently helped nab a historic $2 billion settlement to help roughly a million California students — disproportionately from Black, Latino and lower-income families — who say the state failed to provide them meaningful instruction once the COVID-19 pandemic began.
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March 22, 2024
Living With Death: How Judges Experience Capital Cases
When presiding over death penalty cases, judges are called to set aside their political and moral beliefs, and shut out their emotions. It’s easier said than done.
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March 22, 2024
Milbank Pro Bono Counsel On Leading By Example
Milbank LLP attorneys logged more than 54,000 hours of pro bono work across the firm's 12 offices worldwide in 2023, with 96% of its lawyers in the U.S. volunteering their time. According to Anthony Perez Cassino, the firm's pro bono counsel, it's a commitment to public service work that starts at the top.
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March 20, 2024
Study Sees Promise For Gen AI Tools In Closing Justice Gap
Widespread access to generative artificial intelligence tools could help increase access to justice for low-income Americans, according to a new study that found these tools largely boosted productivity for legal aid lawyers.
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March 20, 2024
US Senators Seek Clemency For Native American Activist
A group of mostly Democratic senators is urging U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland to release compassionately a Native American activist who is serving a life sentence for his alleged involvement in the 1975 murder of two FBI agents, saying he is suffering from severe health conditions and should be able to live out his remaining days among his own people.
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March 18, 2024
Connecticut Exonerees Ask Lawmakers For Help After Prison
The Connecticut Legislature's joint judiciary committee is considering sweeping changes to the way the state compensates exonerated convicts, and three men who each served more than 18 years in prison urged lawmakers Monday to make one edit that would apply the bill to pending state-level claims.
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March 18, 2024
Bookseller Says Ga. Jail's Book Policy Is Unconstitutional
A Georgia bookseller filed a federal lawsuit Friday accusing an Atlanta-area sheriff of imposing an unlawful policy that only allows books into the county jail from "authorized retailers" under the guise of security concerns, alleging the practice is arbitrary, subjective, and an "unconstitutional permitting scheme."
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March 15, 2024
Justices Back Strict View Of Sentencing 'Safety Valve' Relief
The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to let a broader class of nonviolent drug offenders qualify for relief from federal mandatory minimum sentencing guidelines, siding against certain recidivists in a ruling that focused on the meaning of the word "and" in a section of the First Step Act.
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March 14, 2024
Calif. County's Indigent Defense System Is Illegal, Atty Says
A criminal defense program for indigent people run by the bar association in San Mateo County, California, violates a state law prohibiting trade associations from engaging in legal practice and provides constitutionally deficient representation, a member of the association says in a suit in state court.
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March 13, 2024
Mass. Gov. Announces Pardon Plan For Marijuana Possession
Massachusetts Gov. Maura T. Healey has announced plans for sweeping pardons of misdemeanor cannabis possession convictions, following the directive of President Joe Biden, who urged state executives to follow his lead in pardoning low-level marijuana offenses.
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March 12, 2024
Judge Lets Feds Appeal 'Novel' Issues In Asylum Bond Suit
A Washington federal judge allowed federal immigration agencies to seek the Ninth Circuit's opinion on whether the district court can hear a class of asylum-seekers' lawsuit alleging deprivation of bond hearings, saying jurisdictional and constitutional issues in the case seem novel.
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March 12, 2024
NY DAs, Public Defenders Urge Student Loan Aid Expansion
A coalition of 35 district attorney offices, public defender offices, civil legal services providers and unions has urged New York elected officials to pass a bill increasing student loan financial assistance for legal aid attorneys and state prosecutors, many of whom face yearslong debt, Law360 has learned.
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March 08, 2024
'It Erases Us': Sex Abuse Survivors Troubled By Wash. Bill
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee is expected to sign into law a bill that eliminates time limits for bringing child sex abuse claims in the future, but survivors say they are disappointed by an amendment stripping the bill's retroactivity, saying the legislation doesn't go far enough to hold abusers accountable.
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March 08, 2024
How Manhattan's Community Court Became A National Model
The Midtown Community Court was founded 30 years ago as a “problem-solving court” designed to unjam the city’s jails and courtrooms by providing social services and other programming to low-level criminal offenders in lieu of more serious penalties. Since then, courts following similar models have quietly spread to almost every state in the country, and plans for even more are in the works.
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March 08, 2024
Debt-Stricken Homeowners Fight Back After High Court Ruling
Ten months after a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision finding a Minnesota county wrongly held onto excess proceeds it reaped after seizing a woman’s condominium and selling it to settle a tax debt, states are scrambling to reexamine their laws as financially distressed homeowners file new suits challenging the practice.
Expert Analysis
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Broader Problems Remain After Justices' DNA Test Ruling
The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision this week in Reed v. Goertz straightforwardly resolves a statute of limitations question on post-conviction DNA testing, but it does not address the underlying issue that judges remain hostile to granting access to new evidence of innocence, much less relief based on that new evidence, says Brandon Garrett at Duke University.
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It's Time For Lawyers To Stand Up For Climate Justice
The anniversary this week of the Deepwater Horizon disaster offers an opportunity for attorneys to embrace the practice of just transition lawyering — leveraging our skills to support communities on the front lines of climate change and environmental catastrophe as they pursue rebuilding and transformation, says Amy Laura Cahn at Taproot Earth.
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Lessons On Litigating Wrongful Death Cases Against The BOP
With the process of litigating wrongful death claims against the Federal Bureau of Prisons littered with roadblocks, attorneys at HWG share some key lessons for navigating these challenges to ensure families can pursue justice for loved ones who died in custody.
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Eviction Cases Need Tiered Legal Help, Not Unlimited Counsel
The concept of right to counsel in civil cases, particularly in the context of evictions, is hotly debated, but rather than giving every tenant full representation regardless of the merits of their case, we should be focused on ensuring that everyone has the right amount of legal help, says Bob Glaves at the Chicago Bar Foundation.
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US Self-Defense Law Is Neither Overly Harsh Nor Disappearing
The inaccurate caricatures of U.S. self-defense law distract us from engaging in a more fully informed debate about the appropriate role of, and justification for, self-defense in a modern, pluralistic society, says Markus Funk at Perkins Coie.
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High Court Death Penalty Ruling Presents A Troubling Future
While the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision in Cruz v. Arizona — which said the Arizona high court misinterpreted state criminal procedure and warranted federal review was — came as a pleasant surprise in its prioritization of due process, the 5-4 ruling also portends poorly for the future with a low bar in death penalty cases, says Christopher Durocher at the American Constitution Society.
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What Landmark Ruling Means For Civil Rights Suits In Nevada
The Nevada Supreme Court’s recent ruling in Mack v. Williams ends the use of qualified immunity in the state, and though the defense will likely be revived by the Legislature, the decision provides a framework for litigants to hold state actors accountable for violations of state constitutional protections, says Austin Barnum at Clark Hill.
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We Can Ensure Public Safety And Still Reduce Incarceration
Recent progress toward reducing jail and prison populations remains fragile as tough-on-crime policies reemerge, but American history shows that we don’t have to choose between less violence and lower incarceration rates — we can have both, says Jeffrey Bellin at William & Mary Law School.
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War On Drugs Is Cautionary Tale For Abortion Prosecution
As state abortion bans proliferate, prosecutors have an obligation to learn from the devastating lessons of the war on drugs — which disproportionately affected communities of color — and vow not to prosecute individuals’ reproductive health care-related decisions, says Dekalb County District Attorney Sherry Boston.
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The Most-Read Access To Justice Law360 Guest Articles Of 2022
Law360 guest experts weighed in on a broad slate of emerging access to justice issues last year, ranging from evidence of ineffective counsel to opportunities for nonlawyers to provide legal help and the presumption of innocence.
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Understanding Illinois' First-Of-Its-Kind Law Nixing Cash Bail
A new law taking effect Jan. 1 that makes Illinois the first state to eliminate cash bail has been amended to correct some of the many concerns of those who opposed the original, flawed piece of legislation that was rushed through, and will make sweeping changes to how criminal justice operates in Illinois, say Joe Tabor and Perry Zhao at the Illinois Policy Institute.
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Defense Attorneys Can Help Limit Electronic Monitor Overuse
Though electronic monitoring is increasingly promoted as an alternative to incarceration for people awaiting trial, on probation or parole, or undergoing immigration proceedings, its effectiveness is unsupported by evidence and it results in clear harms, so defense attorneys should consider several strategies to challenge its overuse, say experts at the ACLU.
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DOJ Can't Justify Its Failure To Get Data On Deaths In Custody
The U.S. Department of Justice incorrectly claims that a law requiring it to collect meaningful data on how many people die in government custody has somehow limited its ability to do just that — and every failure to study these deaths is a missed opportunity to prevent others, says David Janovsky at the Project On Government Oversight.
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How Civilian Attorneys Can Help Veterans
With legal aid topping the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs' annual list of unmet needs of veterans facing housing insecurity, nonmilitary volunteer attorneys can provide some of the most effective legal services to military and veteran clients, say Anna Richardson at Veterans Legal Services and Nicholas Hasenfus at Holland & Knight.
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Prison Abuse Victims May Get Justice In NY Look-Back Term
As New York opens a one-year window for survivors of adulthood sexual abuse to bring otherwise time-barred claims, incarcerated individuals who were abused by prison staff have an opportunity to seek redress, and can rely on a recent federal court decision to assess potential remedies, says Jaehyun Oh at the Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Firm.