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Access to Justice
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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 study released by the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law on Thursday.
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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.
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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 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
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.
![Many Americans are struggling with credit card debts, and some have turned to debt relief law firms for help. After a California firm called Litigation Practice Group collapsed last year, a new law firm, Morning Law Group, took over. The process has left some clients confused and angry, and has drawn the attention of both state and federal regulatory agencies. (iStock.com/Lesia_G)](https://assets.law360news.com/1850000/1850800/b17b3c0ee27b5001e17d439ff78f3e54733f5c6b-istock-1167933982.jpg)
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.
![A security officer directs people in an immigration court](https://assets.law360news.com/1834000/1834085/13a05e18d8cac2d1c6f99a4d1cd157ee3a8e437b-census_international_migration_14494.jpg)
Migrant Influx Fuels Push For Right To Immigration Counsel
Amid a soaring backlog of asylum cases in the United States, pro-immigrant advocates have intensified their push for legislation that would give noncitizens the right to legal representation in deportation proceedings.
![man in blue shirt speaking in front of chalkboard in school](https://assets.law360news.com/1825000/1825007/e4b3b8844d11f39577065396118049a2100f97d8-gettyimages-1316016581.jpg)
Inside The New Legal Push To End Calif.'s Death Penalty
In a first-of-its-kind case in the Golden State, the California Supreme Court is being asked to permanently dismantle the nation’s most populous death row on grounds that capital punishment has been administered in a racially discriminatory manner that disproportionately harms people of color.
![At a regular legal clinic hosted by Glide Memorial Church in San Francisco, pictured here in December 2022, attorneys are experimenting with generative AI tools to give self-represented litigants assistance in navigating their civil legal issues. (Jane Tyska/Digital First Media/East Bay Times via Getty Images)](https://assets.law360news.com/1812000/1812918/30a974d9c4d51e04e25eb26c93562f62f08e9f30-gettyimages-1459212040.jpg)
Gen AI Shows Promise — And Peril — For Pro Se Litigants
Research on the capabilities of generative AI tools to help self-represented people has shown potential, but there is broad disagreement about how and when pro se litigants should be using them alone.
Expert Analysis
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High Court Ruling Leaves Chance For Civil Forfeiture Reform
Though advocates for civil forfeiture reform did not prevail in Culley v. Marshall last month, concerns voiced by a majority of the U.S. Supreme Court justices potentially leave the door open to consider stricter limits in future cases, say attorneys at Dykema.
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NY Chief Judge Spotlights Need To Strengthen Public Defense
In a recent concurrence in People v. Watkins, New York Chief Judge Rowan Wilson called attention to the necessity for greater investment in public defense services, highlighting not only the urgency of current crises, but the need to embrace a more ambitious vision of equal right to counsel, says Corey Stoughton at Selendy Gay.
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Justices' 1st Post-Bruen Gun Ruling Provides Little Guidance
The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent ruling in U.S. v. Rahimi that domestic abusers can be prohibited from owning guns — its first chance to clarify the new gun rights test it established in its 2022 Bruen decision — will not do much to help lower courts because it didn’t resolve one of the biggest open issues involving the Second Amendment, says Michael McCarthy at Kendall Brill.
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DOJ Must Be Transparent With Its Death-In-Custody Data
In two lawsuits, the Justice Department is fighting news organizations’ efforts to disclose the data it collects about deaths in custody — a counterproductive position against transparency at odds with officials' statements recognizing that such data is necessary to save lives, says David Janovsky at the Project on Government Oversight.
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Justices' Repeat Offender Ruling Eases Prosecutorial Hurdle
The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision last week in Brown v. U.S., clarifying which drug law applies to sentencing a repeat offender in a federal firearms case, allows courts to rely on outdated drug schedules to impose increased sentences, thus removing a significant hurdle for prosecutors, says attorney Molly Parmer.
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Congress Must Abolish Acquitted Conduct Sentencing
The U.S. Sentencing Commission’s recent amendment, limiting judges’ ability to consider acquitted conduct at sentencing, is a necessary step toward ensuring fairer trials and protecting individual rights, but ultimately, Congress must end the practice altogether, say Marc Levin at the Council on Criminal Justice and Martín Sabelli at the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.
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Trauma-Informed Legal Approaches For Pro Bono Attorneys
As National Trauma Awareness Month ends, pro bono attorneys should nevertheless continue to acknowledge the mental and physical effects of trauma, allowing them to better represent clients, and protect themselves from compassion fatigue and burnout, say Katherine Cronin at Stinson and Katharine Manning at Blackbird.
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Public Interest Attorneys Are Key To Preserving Voting Rights
Fourteen states passed laws restricting or limiting voting access last year, highlighting the need to support public interest lawyers who serve as bulwarks against such antidemocratic actions — especially in an election year, says Verna Williams at Equal Justice Works.
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Officers' Failure To Appear In Court Undermines Justice
Ten years of data from Philadelphia show that police officers frequently fail to appear at court hearings for which they’re subpoenaed, which has numerous consequences for defendants, crime victims and the smooth functioning of the criminal legal system, say Lindsay Graef, Sandra Mayson and Aurelie Ouss at the University of Pennsylvania and Megan Stevenson at the University of Virginia.
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Criminal Defendants Should Have Access To Foreign Evidence
A New Jersey federal court recently ordered prosecutors to obtain evidence from India on behalf of the former Cognizant Technology executives they’re prosecuting — a precedent that other courts should follow to make cross-border evidentiary requests more fair and efficient, say Kaylana Mueller-Hsia and Rebecca Wexler at UC Berkeley School of Law.
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Justices' Forfeiture Ruling Resolves Nonexistent Split
The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in McIntosh v. U.S., holding that a trial court’s failure to enter a preliminary criminal forfeiture order prior to sentencing doesn’t bar its entry later, is unusual in that it settles an issue on which the lower courts were not divided — but it may apply in certain forfeiture disputes, says Stefan Cassella at Asset Forfeiture Law.
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Advocating For Disability Rights In Probation And Parole
While the U.S. continues to over-police people with disabilities, defense attorneys can play a crucial role in ensuring that clients with disabilities who are on probation or parole have access to the accommodations they need and to which they are legally entitled, says Allison Frankel at the ACLU.
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11th Circ. Block Of 'Stop WOKE' Act Is Good For Public Safety
The Eleventh Circuit’s recent decision to uphold an injunction of Florida’s so-called Stop WOKE Act, a law that curtails workplace diversity training, means that law enforcement can continue receiving such training — an essential step toward more equitable policing and public safety, say Miriam Krinsky at Fair and Just Prosecution and Diane Goldstein at Law Enforcement Action Partnership.
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Prosecutors' Growing Case Backlogs Need Urgent Attention
Growing case backlogs in prosecutors' offices around the country affect the functioning of the entire criminal legal system, so the problem's root causes must be immediately addressed, say Minnesota county prosecutor John Choi and Montana county prosecutor Audrey Cromwell.
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Context Is Everything In Justices' Sentencing Relief Decision
In the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent Pulsifer v. U.S. decision, limiting the number of drug offenders eligible for sentencing relief, the majority and dissent adopted very different contextual frames for interpreting the meaning of “and” — with the practical impact being that thousands more defendants will be subject to severe mandatory minimums, says Douglas Berman at Moritz College of Law.