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Access to Justice
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July 27, 2023
DOJ Hailed For Goal Of Helping Pretrial Inmates Access Attys
The public defender community is praising new recommendations from the U.S. Department of Justice aimed at finding ways to improve the ability of criminal suspects in federal custody to communicate with attorneys and access materials related to their cases.
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July 26, 2023
Mich. Justices Say Pro Bono Status Can't Affect Fee Awards
Pro bono representation should not be a factor in determining a reasonable attorney fee award, the Michigan Supreme Court said Wednesday, finding a judge wrongly slashed Honigman LLP's fee award when it represented a pair of journalists for free in a public records case.
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July 26, 2023
Univ. Research Center Sues DOD For El Salvador Records
The University of Washington's Center for Human Rights has sued the U.S. Department of Defense in Seattle federal court, alleging the Defense Intelligence Agency has withheld records regarding human rights violations that took place amid armed conflict in El Salvador in the 1980s and early 1990s.
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July 26, 2023
Brothers Say Chicago Police Tortured Them For Confessions
Two brothers who spent 26 years in prison before their convictions were vacated in the murder of a 10-year-old boy say in new federal lawsuits that members of the Chicago Police Department used false evidence and torture to force their confessions.
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July 26, 2023
No Early Release For Sick Prisoner Claiming Inadequate Care
There will be no compassionate release for a sick man serving 18 years in prison for collecting more than $9 million from Medicare and Medicaid while banned for fraud, a New Jersey federal court decided.
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July 25, 2023
Advocates Say Tenn. Child Services Fails To Help Immigrants
Several undocumented children and their advocates have accused the Tennessee Department of Children's Services of failing to help them pursue legal status, saying the agency allows vulnerable children in its care to age out of a special pathway to citizenship.
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July 25, 2023
Brooklyn Public Defender Union To Hold 2nd Lunchtime Picket
Nearly two years after eligible employees voted to unionize and be represented by the Association of Legal Aid Attorneys, Brooklyn Defender Services employees plan to hold a second lunchtime picket on Wednesday as they remain without a contract.
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July 25, 2023
New EDNY Committee To Give Convictions A Second Look
A New York federal prosecutor announced Monday that his office is forming a committee to look over claims of wrongful convictions.
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July 21, 2023
How Habeas Corpus Ruling May Condemn Innocent Prisoners
To Justice Kentanji Brown Jackson, it sounded absurd: Why would legally innocent people — convicted under interpretations of the law that the U.S. Supreme Court later found to be wrong — be denied a chance to seek release from prison?
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July 21, 2023
'Paper Abuse': How Family Courts Feed Coercive Control
Survivors' rights activists say that abusers use the courts to harass and exert control over their former partners. Some states have sought to pass laws curbing the practice. But the lines are tricky to draw, as they pit concerns about weaponizing litigation against due process rights.
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July 21, 2023
Section 8 Tenants Are Using New Laws To Fight Housing Bias
States and cities are increasingly passing laws barring discrimination against tenants who rely on housing assistance vouchers. Now tenants and their advocates are launching a growing number of lawsuits to enforce them.
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July 21, 2023
Justice Sotomayor Slams Decision To Execute Ala. Prisoner
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonya Sotomayor blasted her colleagues early Friday for allowing Alabama to use a death row inmate as a guinea pig following the state's "tortuous attempts" to execute other prisoners by lethal injection.
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July 21, 2023
ACLU Says NJ Judge Safety Law Is Used To Chill Free Speech
Days after he questioned the absenteeism of the Police Department director during a City Council meeting, Charlie Kratovil, a seasoned local journalist and self-described advocate in New Brunswick, a city in central New Jersey, received a cease-and-desist letter.
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July 21, 2023
Judge Tatel On Returning To His Pro Bono Roots
Senior D.C. Circuit Judge David S. Tatel grew up wanting to become a scientist like his father was, but the 1960s "changed everything," he recently told Law360 as he prepares to retire from the bench.
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July 21, 2023
Jersey City Advocates Leave Mark On Right To Counsel Laws
At eviction hearings nationwide, where a tenant's ability to stay in their home is at stake, an average of 97% of tenants come to court with a handicap — they don't have an attorney.
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July 18, 2023
Illinois High Court OKs 1st Law In Nation Abolishing Cash Bail
The Illinois Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that a 2021 state law eliminating cash bail and strictly limiting pretrial incarceration in the state is constitutional, overturning a lower court's decision that had put the legislation in limbo.
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July 17, 2023
Mich. Justices Say Peremptory Strike Errors Warrant New Trial
A divided Michigan Supreme Court held for the first time that erroneous denial of a criminal defendant's peremptory strikes during jury selection is a flaw serious enough to automatically require a new trial.
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July 17, 2023
Mich. Chief Justice Pushes For Diminished Capacity Defense
The Michigan Supreme Court's chief justice said the state's ban on using a diminished mental capacity defense was misguided and urged the state Legislature to rethink an "all-or-nothing approach" that recognizes only legal insanity as a defense to criminal responsibility.
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July 11, 2023
New Program To Help Noncitizen Soldiers Become Naturalized
Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP has launched a new fellowship to guide highly skilled noncitizen soldiers and veterans through the naturalization process and usher them across the finish line, after the firm won litigation ensuring the soldiers and vets can apply for citizenship that was promised in exchange for their service.
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July 10, 2023
Wash. To Pay $100M For Pretrial Mental Health Exam Delays
A Seattle federal judge has slammed a state agency for committing "inexcusable" constitutional rights violations by letting people with mental illness languish in local jails while awaiting trial, ordering the state to pay $100 million for violating a class action settlement over delays in court-ordered competency services.
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July 10, 2023
'Patently Unsafe': Latest Report Details Violence At NYC Jails
A video showing confrontational officers played at a new recruit ceremony and posted publicly on May 19. (Court Documents)
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July 07, 2023
'The Wire' Creator Urges Leniency In Actor's Fentanyl Death
The co-creator behind the HBO drama series "The Wire" urged a New York federal judge to show compassion to one of the men who pled guilty in the overdose death of Michael K. Williams, saying the actor's own stance against mass incarceration and the drug war spurred his letter.
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July 07, 2023
From Felon To Firm Owner, Mass. Atty Aids Inmate IP Pursuits
After opening up about his own criminal background and his unconventional path into the legal industry, intellectual property lawyer Keegan Caldwell is now helping incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people file patent applications.
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July 07, 2023
Justices Eye Intersection Of Domestic Violence, Gun Rights
In the fall, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear a case centering on the intersection of gun rights and domestic violence. Legal experts say it could be one of several cases involving the Second Amendment the court will be called to decide following its landmark ruling on gun rights last year.
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July 07, 2023
As States Purge Medicaid Rolls, Legal Aid Groups Step Up
With millions of Americans expected to lose Medicaid coverage as states review benefit eligibility following the end of COVID-19 pandemic-related protections, legal aid organizations are working to raise awareness, help people appeal terminations of coverage and educate beneficiaries about their rights.
Expert Analysis
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Justice Denied For A NY Domestic Violence Survivor
New York's Domestic Violence Survivors Justice Act was enacted to reduce sentences for people like Nicole Addimando, who was just given 19 years to life in prison for killing her sadistically abusive partner, so the court’s failure to apply it here raises the question of whether it will be applied at all, say Ross Kramer and Nicole Fidler at Sanctuary for Families.
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Arbitration Is A Flawed Forum That Needs Repair
While arbitration is a good vehicle for ensuring timely dispute resolution, the existing system lacks protections for workers and consumers, and legislative efforts to outlaw forced arbitration prove it’s time to finally fix it, says Gerald Sauer at Sauer & Wagner.
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Sentencing Insights From A Chat With Judge Nancy Gertner
While many judges say there isn’t much criminal defense attorneys can do at sentencing hearings, retired U.S. District Judge Nancy Gertner — an outspoken critic of the federal sentencing guidelines — disagrees, says criminal defense attorney Alan Ellis.
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Rigged Forfeiture Law Seizes Property In 4 Steps
Nationwide, law enforcement agencies rely on a four-pronged attack to generate billions of dollars in civil forfeiture revenue to use for police perks, depriving defendants of property without due process of law, says Daryl James of the Institute for Justice.
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To Honor The Promise Of Liberty, Reform Pretrial Detention
As criminal justice reform advocates focus on the critical need to reduce unjust pretrial detention, jurisdictions must commit to a range of policy changes that include, but also go beyond, risk assessments, says former Wisconsin Judge Jeffrey Kremers.
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USCIS Work Proposals Add To LGBTQ Asylum Seekers' Risks
Pending U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services proposals to prolong employment ineligibility and charge for employment authorization documents would be particularly detrimental to already-vulnerable LGBTQ asylum seekers, says Richard Kelley at the DC Volunteer Lawyers Project.
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Understanding What Restorative Justice Is And Isn't
A hearing in the Jeffrey Epstein case featuring victim impact statements and a White House meeting between a hit-and-run driver and the victim's parents have been described as restorative justice, but the reality is more complex, says Natalie Gordon of DOAR.
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5 Most-Read Access To Justice Law360 Guests Of 2019
On topics ranging from public trial rights to electronic monitoring technology to the rules of evidence in the context of sexual harassment trials, 2019 brought a wide array of compelling commentary from the access to justice community.
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Inside The Key Federal Sentencing Developments Of 2019
Raquel Wilson, director of the U.S. Sentencing Commission’s Office of Education and Sentencing Practice, discusses this year's developments in federal sentencing, including new legislation in the Senate and U.S. Supreme Court cases invalidating certain statutes.
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ODonnell Consent Decree Will Harm Criminal Justice In Texas
In Odonnell v. Harris County, a Texas federal court ordered that misdemeanor offenders could be released without bail, marking a fundamental deterioration of the Texas criminal justice system, says attorney Randy Adler.
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Judges Cannot Rehabilitate Offenders With Extra Prison Time
Although they may mean well, federal judges should stop attempting to help criminal defendants get into drug rehabilitation programs by unlawfully sending them to prison for longer than their recommended sentences, says GianCarlo Canaparo at The Heritage Foundation.
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Time To Rethink License Suspensions Without Due Notice
In North Carolina, one in seven adults has a suspended driver’s license, but our research suggests that many of them never received actual notice of their license suspension, or of the court proceeding that led to it, making this a fundamentally unfair sanction, say Brandon Garrett, Karima Modjadidi and William Crozier at Duke University.
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Changing The Way We Dialogue About Justice Reform
Dawn Freeman of The Securus Foundation discusses why humanizing the language used to discuss justice-involved individuals is a key aspect of reform and how the foundation’s upcoming campaign will implement this change in mainstream publications and on social media.
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High Court Should Restore Sentencing Due Process
If the U.S. Supreme Court grants certiorari in Asaro v. U.S. and rules that sentencing judges cannot consider uncharged, dismissed and acquitted conduct, a peculiar and troubling oddity of criminal and constitutional law will finally be rectified, say criminal defense attorney Alan Ellis and sentencing consultant Mark Allenbaugh.
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Book Review: Who's To Blame For The Broken Legal System?
The provocative new book by Alec Karakatsanis, "Usual Cruelty: The Complicity of Lawyers in the Criminal Injustice System," shines a searing light on the anachronism that is the American criminal justice system, says Sixth Circuit Judge Bernice Donald.