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Access to Justice
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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.
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July 24, 2024
Most Think Right To Atty Includes Civil Suits, LSC Poll Finds
A majority of Americans surveyed this month said they didn't seek legal representation when faced with life-changing civil legal issues over the past three years, and more than half said they believe if they can't afford an attorney, they're entitled to free representation in civil legal matters.
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July 22, 2024
Haynes Boone Hires Dallas-Based Pro Bono Head
Haynes and Boone LLP has tapped an attorney who spent the last six years leading the legal department of a women's shelter nonprofit as the new head of the firm's pro bono efforts.
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July 17, 2024
Ohio Justices Enforce $30M Police Brutality Judgment
The Ohio Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered the city of East Cleveland to pay upwards of $30 million to satisfy a judgment in favor of a man who won a jury verdict finding that police officers wrongfully detained him and caused serious injuries in the process.
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July 15, 2024
Cook County To Double Restorative Justice Courts
Cook County Chief Circuit Judge Timothy Evans pledged Monday to more than double the county's so-called second-chance courts this year, praising their results so far in cutting recidivism by diverting young-offender prosecutions in favor of personal rehabilitation.
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July 12, 2024
Colo. Prisoners Seek Class Cert. In Slave Labor Suit
A pair of Colorado prisoners have asked a state judge to grant class certification for their suit alleging the state is illegally using them for slave labor, detailing their experiences of punishment like extensive isolation for refusing to work.
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July 09, 2024
Texas Chief Justice Calls Pulling IDs Over Fines 'Stupid'
The chief justice of the Supreme Court of Texas told the Senate Judiciary Committee during a Tuesday hearing on funding civil legal aid that the practice of revoking a person's driver's license for an inability to pay court fees was "stupid."
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July 05, 2024
How A Mayer Brown-Led Coalition Secured 143 Asylum Grants
A Mayer Brown LLP-led coalition of 20 law firms celebrated a major pro bono victory after recently securing asylum for 143 Asian University for Women students who the firm helped evacuate from Afghanistan in 2021.
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July 02, 2024
Native American Activist Leonard Peltier Denied Parole
The U.S. Parole Commission on Tuesday denied parole for Leonard Peltier, a Native American activist serving a life sentence for his conviction in the 1975 slayings of two FBI agents, despite an array of calls for clemency over the years from such luminaries as Pope Francis and the Dalai Lama, as well as tribes, civil rights groups and federal lawmakers.
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July 02, 2024
Sentencing Relief Law Gets Another Supreme Court Look
The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to consider whether a sentencing reduction provision in the First Step Act can apply to defendants whose sentences prior to the 2018 law are vacated and who are resentenced with the statute in effect.
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July 01, 2024
Juror Didn't Taint Trial Before Removal, Colo. Justices Say
The Colorado Supreme Court said Monday that a trial judge's rejection of a Black defendant's challenge to a juror for alleged racial bias did not infringe on the defendant's rights, according to a majority decision that concluded the error was harmless because the juror was ultimately sent home.
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June 28, 2024
Problems Linger Amid Efforts To Clean Up Debt Firm's Mess
After the collapse of a California debt relief firm last year amid allegations of fraud, a bankruptcy judge signed off on a plan to allow a new firm to begin providing services for thousands of affected clients. While the new firm has promised to clean up its predecessor’s mess, some consumers say little to nothing has changed, and now enforcement agencies including the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau have started asking questions.
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June 28, 2024
Access To Justice Will Return In September
Law360's Access To Justice newsletter will be taking a summer hiatus after today's issue and will return on Sept. 7.
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June 28, 2024
More Legal Aid Attys Move To Addiction Epidemic Frontlines
Aided in part by an influx of settlement money from opioid litigation, a growing number of legal aid groups are offering programs aimed at individuals and families hurt by the addiction crisis, helping them navigate civil legal issues like driver’s license reinstatements, custody and domestic violence issues, and navigating public health benefits.
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June 28, 2024
DC Access To Justice Leader On Making Courts User-Friendly
Erin Larkin, the first director of the D.C. Courts’ newly created Access to Justice unit, recently spoke with Law360 about plans to boost efforts to connect people with legal services and make the courts more accessible.
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June 27, 2024
Rape Kit Co. Wants Wash. Ban Lifted During Free Speech Suit
A company that sells self-administered sexual assault DNA collection kits is urging a Washington federal judge to stop the enforcement of a new state law that it claims stifles its First Amendment rights by barring the marketing of its kits as an alternative to resources offered by law enforcement and the government.
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June 27, 2024
Denver Must Face 2020 Protest Response Claims, Judge Rules
A Colorado federal judge has largely rejected Denver's bid to end claims that it encouraged police to use excessive force against social justice advocates in 2020, allowing a lawsuit over the police response to move forward.
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June 27, 2024
Lowenstein Pro Bono Head On Guiding NJ Public Interest Law
Law360 Pulse caught up with Alexander Shalom, head of the Lowenstein Center for Public Interest as of the beginning of June, to discuss his plans for the influential pro bono center’s future and his reflections on his time at the ACLU-NJ.
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June 26, 2024
Calif. Sanctioned $111M In 30-Year Prison Staffing Case
A California federal judge has ordered state officials to hand over more than $111 million for failing to bring prison mental health staffing up to levels set by the court in 2009 in a 30-year-old case, saying Tuesday that "given defendants' contumacy, it is for the court to effect compliance."
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June 25, 2024
Immigration Org.'s Attys Can Be In Union, NLRB Official Says
Attorneys at a nonprofit providing immigration legal services may remain in a voluntarily recognized union bargaining unit, a National Labor Relations Board regional director concluded, saying the attorneys are not supervisors who are excluded from unionizing under federal labor law.
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June 24, 2024
Mich. Justices Take Up Young Adults' Life Sentence Challenge
Michigan's top court will weigh whether the state's mandatory life sentence for murder is unconstitutional when applied to young adults, after 19- and 20-year-olds argued that a 2022 precedent banning the punishment for 18-year-olds should extend to them.
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June 21, 2024
Justices Keep Domestic Abusers Disarmed, Clarify Bruen
The U.S. Supreme Court rejected a Texas man's constitutional challenge to a federal law prohibiting people subject to domestic violence restraining orders from possessing firearms Friday, providing limited guidance to lower courts on how to apply the high court's Second Amendment historical analogue test.
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June 11, 2024
DC Firms Honored For Local Legal Services Donations
The D.C. Access to Justice Commission is recognizing 39 law firms for their financial contributions to legal aid providers in Washington, saying the private bar's support is crucial to meeting the community's needs.
Expert Analysis
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'True Threat' Ruling May Ensnare Kids' Online Speech
The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent Counterman v. Colorado decision correctly held that a showing of intent is required to prosecute someone for true threats, but the amorphous standard adopted by the court risks overcriminalizing children’s use of social media and text-based communications, say Adam Pollet at Eversheds Sutherland and Suzanne La Pierre at Human Rights for Kids.
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More States Should Join Effort To Close Legal Services Gap
Colorado is the most recent state to allow other types of legal providers, not just attorneys, to offer specific services in certain circumstances — and more states should rethink the century-old assumptions that shape our current regulatory rules, say Natalie Anne Knowlton and Janet Drobinske at the University of Denver.
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The Pop Culture Docket: Judge Elrod On 'Jury Duty'
Though the mockumentary series “Jury Duty” features purposely outrageous characters, it offers a solemn lesson about the simple but brilliant design of the right to trial by jury, with an unwitting protagonist who even John Adams may have welcomed as an impartial foreperson, says Fifth Circuit Judge Jennifer Elrod.
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A Judge's Pitch To Revive The Jury Trial
Ohio state Judge Pierre Bergeron explains how the decline of the jury trial threatens public confidence in the judiciary and even democracy as a whole, and he offers ideas to restore this sacred right.
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People In Prison Should Have Access To Digital Technology
There are a number of reasons why people who are incarcerated should have access to digital communication technology — from facilitating reentry to saving lives in a future pandemic — but they need the means and the necessary legal protections to do so, say NYU Law student Suchy Kahlon and First Amendment attorney Dan Novack.
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Mallory Gives Plaintiffs A Better Shot At Justice
Critics of the U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision in Mallory v. Norfolk Southern claim it opens the door to litigation tourism, but the ruling simply gives plaintiffs more options — enabling them to seek justice against major corporations in the best possible court, say Rayna Kessler and Ethan Seidenberg at Robins Kaplan.
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5th Circ. Concurrence May Help Erode Qualified Immunity
A Fifth Circuit judge’s recent concurrence in Rogers v. Jarrett, highlighting new legal scholarship that questions the historical foundations of the qualified immunity doctrine, provides the basis for additional arguments for plaintiffs to secure legal recourse when government officials violate their rights, says Brian Collins at Van Naarden Spizer.
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How Public Defenders Can Use Social Media To Drive Change
In addition to their courtroom advocacy, indigent defenders should strategically use social media to develop a public voice that can counter police and prosecutor narratives, call attention to injustices and inspire policy shifts, say Russell Gold at the University of Alabama and Kay Levine at Emory University.
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Too Often, Use Of K-9 Units Is Cruel And Unusual Punishment
In too many instances, the use of police dogs as weapons violates the Eighth Amendment's protections against cruel and unusual punishment, but as a long line of cases demonstrates, courts have largely failed to acknowledge the unconstitutionality of K-9 unit attacks, says Patrick Buelna at Lawyers for the People.
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Justices' Habeas Ruling Further Saps Writ Of Its Strength
After the U.S. Supreme Court dealt its latest blow to the Great Writ in Jones v. Hendrix, holding that a provision called the “saving clause” cannot be used to file successive habeas petitions after a retroactive change in statutory law, Congress may need to amend the underlying law to ensure a more open habeas process, says Daniel Medwed at Northeastern University.
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Service Members Should Have Right To Unanimous Verdicts
As several recent cases exemplify, service members can be convicted of crimes by nonunanimous juries in military courts and cannot appeal such verdicts, despite Supreme Court precedent from recent years — a glaring constitutional error that Congress should rectify expeditiously, says Kevin Carroll at Hughes Hubbard.
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Jail-Based Polling Places Are Key To Expanding Ballot Access
As the 2024 elections begin to take shape, jurisdictions should consider jail-based polling locations to ease voting obstacles faced by incarcerated people, say former advocacy director Naila Awan and communications strategist Wanda Bertram at Prison Policy Initiative.
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A New HOPE For Expunging State-Level Cannabis Convictions
As states across the U.S. legalize cannabis, individuals with related convictions face hurdles to expunging their records due to outdated record-keeping systems — but the recently introduced HOPE Act would remedy this by providing grant funding to state and local governments, says Rep. Dave Joyce, R-Ohio.
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Immigration Board Must Mend Choice Of Law Post-Garcia
The Board of Immigration Appeals must revisit the choice of law standard recently established in Matter of Garcia, which fails to establish predictability, upsets the settled expectations of parties' remanded cases and unfairly tips the scale in the government's favor, says Monica Mananzan at the Capital Area Immigrants' Rights Coalition.
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Inside Immigration Court: The Pros, Cons Of Remote Hearings
Technology introduced during the pandemic has improved the quality and efficiency of virtual immigration court hearings, but concerns still linger over the court system's ability to provide full and complete simultaneous interpretation in these hearings, as well as its effect on due process, says Immigration Judge Mimi Tsankov.