Access to Justice

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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."

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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."

Expert Analysis

  • Prison Abuse Victims May Get Justice In NY Look-Back Term

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    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.

  • As 4th Circ. Reminds, Carrying Cash Is Not A Crime

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    The Fourth Circuit’s recent decision in U.S. v. McClellan makes clear that unwillingness or inability to use a bank account does not necessarily make someone a criminal, and that the government needs evidence of wrongdoing before seizing and keeping assets, say Robert Johnson and Caroline Grace Brothers at Institute for Justice.

  • Algorithms Have Potential To Reduce Sentencing Disparities

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    Criminal legal system algorithms have mostly been used to assess the risk posed by defendants in settings like pretrial release, bail determinations, sentencing and parole supervision, but predictable modeling can also be used to reduce sentencing disparities and overly punitive outcomes, say ACLU researchers and collaborators.

  • 2 Legislative Reforms Would Address Many Immigration Woes

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    Congress should pass currently pending legislation to create an Article I immigration court and update the registry process — reforms that would shield immigration courts from political pressure, enable many longtime residents to cure their immigration status, and alleviate case backlogs, says retired immigration judge Dana Leigh Marks.

  • Mich. Ruling Widens Sentencing Protections For Young Adults

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    The Michigan Supreme Court’s recent decision in People v. Parks, holding that a mandatory life-without-parole sentence for an 18-year-old violated the state’s constitution, builds on a nascent trend, based in neuroscience, that expands protections for young people over 17 who are charged with serious offenses, says Kimberly Thomas at the University of Michigan Law School.

  • Bodega Worker Case Exposes Key Flaw In NY Legal System

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    The controversial murder case involving bodega worker Jose Alba reveals New York prosecutors’ common practice of charging first and investigating later — a systemic failure that has devastating consequences for individuals and undermines the presumption of innocence, says Michael Bloch at Bloch & White.

  • Justices' Resentencing Ruling Boosts Judicial Discretion

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    The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision in Concepcion v. U.S., holding that federal judges can consider new laws and a defendant’s rehabilitation in resentencing, will enable correction of overlong crack cocaine-related sentences — but this wider judicial discretion may also entrench existing disparities, says Mark Osler at the University of St. Thomas School of Law.

  • Justices Leave Many With No Court To Hear Innocence Claims

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    While bad lawyering is an all too common cause of wrongful convictions, the U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision in Shinn v. Ramirez closes the federal courthouse doors to evidence of ineffective counsel, leaving many without a meaningful opportunity to prove their innocence, says Christina Swarns at the Innocence Project.

  • Nonprofit Ruling Is An Important Step For Nonlawyer Practice

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    A New York federal judge’s recent ruling that will allow nonprofit Upsolve to give legal advice to low-income debtors without a license is a positive development for nonlawyer practice, but presents questions about how to ensure similar programs can exist without fighting dodgy constitutional battles, says Ronald Minkoff at Frankfurt Kurnit.

  • DOJ's Cautious Return To Supplemental Enviro Projects

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    While the U.S. Department of Justice has ended the Trump-era ban on negotiating supplemental environment projects as part of civil and criminal environmental settlements, the process and delay around this change suggest that SEPs may be more limited under the Biden administration than in the past, say attorneys at Sidley.

  • Justices' Ruling Makes Some Progress On Cop Accountability

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    The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision in Thompson v. Clark removes a roadblock that stymied malicious prosecution lawsuits, and could have positive impacts beyond the Fourth Amendment — but suits seeking accountability for police misconduct still face numerous challenges, says Brian Frazelle at the Constitutional Accountability Center.

  • We Can't Rely On Lawyers For Every Justice Need

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    The Southern District of New York, which recently heard arguments in Upsolve and John Udo-Okon v. New York, has the opportunity to increase access to justice by allowing nonlawyers to provide legal help, shifting the focus from credentials to substantive outcomes, says Rebecca Sandefur at Arizona State University.

  • Reinvigorated DOJ Is Strong Incentive For Police Reforms

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    The U.S. Department of Justice is fully back in the business of investigating law enforcement agencies as part of the Biden administration's prioritization of racial equity, criminal justice reform and prosecution of hate crimes, so police departments have strong incentive to be proactive in their reforms, say attorneys at McGuireWoods.

  • Habeas Ruling Shows Justices' Growing Hostility Toward Writ

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    The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision in Brown v. Davenport, upholding the murder conviction of a man who was shackled at trial in view of the jury, makes an unjust federal review law more potent, and points to the conservative supermajority’s increasing antagonism toward writs of habeas corpus, says Christopher Wright Durocher at the American Constitution Society.

  • Time To Fix Legal Industry's Environmental Pro Bono Problem

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    As we observe Earth Month, it's sobering to note that pro bono environmental law work lags behind other practice areas — but the good news is that there are numerous organizations that can help lawyers get connected with environment-related pro bono projects, says Matthew Karmel at Riker Danzig.

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