Try our Advanced Search for more refined results
Access to Justice
-
October 13, 2023
Resolute Lawyers Help South Sudanese Dissident Win Asylum
Two Paul Hastings attorneys recently helped a South Sudanese peace activist and his family navigate a three-year bureaucratic odyssey to secure asylum in the U.S. following their escape from government hit squads in their home country.
-
October 13, 2023
NY Court OKs Disclosure Of Past Police Misconduct Records
A New York state appeals court has ruled that a 2020 state action authorizing the public disclosure of police misconduct records can be applied retroactively, opening the door to more scrutiny of police actions that have previously been hidden from the public, court records show.
-
October 12, 2023
Prosecutor Disbarred In Drug Lab Scandal Seeks Reprieve
A former Massachusetts assistant attorney general who was ordered disbarred by the state's highest court in August for failing to disclose evidence of misconduct by a state drug lab chemist is asking that her disbarment be imposed retroactively to 2018.
-
October 05, 2023
Pot Legalization Doesn't Always Mean Justice, Report Says
A report from the Last Prisoner Project, a nonprofit advocating for criminal justice reform regarding cannabis, shows that equal justice doesn't always accompany the freedom to use the drug in states that have legalized it recreationally.
-
October 10, 2023
5th Circ. Judge Airs Dissent In 'Alternative' Majority Opinion
A dissenting federal appellate judge took the seemingly unusual step of issuing a mock majority opinion this week to illustrate his disagreement with the actual majority ruling to keep a pause on a convicted murderer's execution in Texas, calling his decision "the Fifth Circuit panel opinion that should have been issued."
-
October 04, 2023
Wash. Tribal Board To Study State's Boarding School History
Five members of Washington's tribal nations will lead an advisory committee aimed at studying how the state can address harms caused to Native Americans by the government's role in Native boarding schools, the state's attorney general says.
-
October 02, 2023
Calif. Cities Sue To Block Pre-Arraignment Zero Bail System
Several cities sued the Los Angeles County Superior Court in California state court over its pre-arraignment zero bail system for arrestees detained for low-level offenses, alleging it doesn't consider public safety and emboldens criminals to seamlessly continue criminal activity "with impunity and with little actual imminent consequences."
-
September 28, 2023
Federal Court Finds 'Psychotic' Texas Man Unfit For Execution
A federal judge has found that a Texas man with a long history of severe mental illness is unfit for execution under the Constitution, the latest episode in a long legal saga that included a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court in the man's favor in 2007, his attorney told Law360 on Thursday.
-
September 28, 2023
2 Philly Officers Sued Over Killing After 1 Beat Murder Rap
Fresh off of evading murder charges, Philadelphia Police Officer Mark Dial has been sued along with his partner for wrongful death by the family of Eddie Irizarry, who was shot and killed by Dial while sitting in his car in August.
-
September 27, 2023
Civil Rights Attys Tell 4th Circ. Prisoners Owed Min. Wage
A group of civil rights, anti-poverty and employment law groups urged the Fourth Circuit to revive claims that Baltimore County is obliged to pay minimum wages for work that county jail inmates perform at a recycling plant, arguing the work is profit-driven rather than rehabilitative.
-
September 27, 2023
Bipartisan Bill Seeks To Address Nationwide Rape Kit Backlog
A pair of congressional representatives from rival parties on Wednesday announced the introduction of a bill that would increase accountability and transparency on rape kits that have been piling up in police storage across the country.
-
September 25, 2023
Ill. Woman Wins $19.3M From Jury In Prison Sex Abuse Case
An Illinois federal jury has awarded more than $19 million to a woman who alleged her counselor raped and sexually assaulted her for seven months while she was serving a prison sentence at Logan Correctional Center.
-
September 22, 2023
Access To Justice Cases To Watch This Term
In the term beginning next week, the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to return to some of the most hot-button issues concerning civil rights: guns, free speech, race discrimination, and potentially more.
-
September 22, 2023
Legal Aid Funder Awards $5M For Pro Bono Services
The Legal Services Corporation announced this week it will award more than $5 million in grants to 17 legal organizations around the U.S. in an effort to expand and improve pro bono legal services across the country.
-
September 22, 2023
Suits Shed Light On Alleged Baton Rouge 'Torture Warehouse'
An unmarked warehouse down the road from a Baton Rouge, Louisiana, police station has become the subject of lawsuits alleging that some police detainees have been subjected to clandestine and sometimes violent interrogations. The allegations are serious enough that the FBI is investigating, authorities say.
-
September 22, 2023
How Robins Kaplan Helped Protect Minn. Wilderness Area
Attorneys with Robins Kaplan LLP recently helped an environmental group defeat a suit brought by a mining company seeking to extract copper and nickel upstream from a massive, federally protected Minnesota wilderness area including some of the most pristine waterways in North America.
-
September 22, 2023
Georgia DAs' Fear Of 'Witch Hunt' Unfounded, Judge Told
Counsel for members of Georgia's new commission tasked with investigating complaints against prosecutors urged an Atlanta judge Friday to reject an attempt by four district attorneys to halt the commission's work before it starts accepting complaints Oct. 1.
-
September 20, 2023
NY State Bar Unveils Post-Affirmative Action DEI Strategies
Members of a New York State Bar Association task force on Wednesday urged leaders in higher education, law and the corporate world to implement meaningful and legally permissible race-neutral criteria to advance diversity and inclusion goals in the wake of the Supreme Court's decision ending affirmative action in university admissions.
-
September 15, 2023
DC Lawyers Group For Civil Rights Names Three Directors
The Washington Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs has named a new development director, a new legal director and its first communications director, the committee announced Thursday.
-
September 13, 2023
Mass. Justices Hint At Individual Review Of Police Misdeeds
Justices on Massachusetts' highest court signaled Wednesday that they do not view allegations of widespread police misconduct in a now-disbanded Springfield police narcotics unit in the same light as the state drug lab scandal that led to the dismissals of some 30,000 convictions.
-
September 13, 2023
Prisons Bureau Chief Questioned On Reports Of Inmate Abuse
The director of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Prisons faced questions from lawmakers on Wednesday about how the agency is working to address reports of sexual misconduct by inmates and employees following multiple investigations.
-
September 13, 2023
Dem Sen. Peter Welch Blasts Possible Public Defender Cuts
Years before coming to Congress, Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., was a public defender, and now he's raising the alarm about proposed cuts by the House and Senate to the federal public defender system, which he calls a "bedrock requirement" of the American judicial system.
-
September 12, 2023
Rule Changes Could Slow Eviction Process In Michigan
The Michigan court process for evictions is set to change in November, when several new and temporary tenant protections that could increase the amount of time it takes to evict a renter who is behind on bills will take permanent effect.
-
September 12, 2023
Senate Bill Reintroduced To Address Judicial 'Emergencies'
A bipartisan group of senators announced Tuesday they have reintroduced legislation to create 66 new district judgeships following the next two presidential elections in order to alleviate workloads on the courts.
-
September 12, 2023
Public Defenders Are 'Dangerously' Overworked, Report Finds
Public defenders face extremely heavy workloads that prevent them from providing effective legal representation to people accused of crimes, according to a new study published Tuesday.
Expert Analysis
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
High Court Should Affirm 3-Strikes Rule For Prisoner Pleading
The U.S. Supreme Court in Lomax v. Ortiz-Marquez should hold that any case dismissed for failure to state a claim should count as a strike for purposes of Section 1915(g), which allows incarcerated people to file three complaints free of charge, says GianCarlo Canaparo at The Heritage Foundation.
-
Acquitted Conduct Should Not Be Considered At Sentencing
Congress should advance the Prohibiting Punishment of Acquitted Conduct Act, which seeks to explicitly preclude federal judges from a practice that effectively eliminates the democratic role of the jury in the criminal justice system, says Robert Ehrlich, former governor of Maryland.
-
Thank A Female Veteran With Access To Legal Services
Women returning from military deployment often require more legal assistance than their male counterparts, and Congress can alleviate some of these burdens by passing the Improving Legal Services for Female Veterans Act, says Rep. Susan Wild, D-Pa.
-
California Should Embrace Nonlawyer Providers
Despite criticisms from the legal profession, a California proposal to allow some legal service delivery by nonlawyers is a principled response to the reality that millions of Americans currently must face their legal problems without any help, says Chris Albin-Lackey, legal and policy director at the National Center for Access to Justice.
-
Calif. Law Offers New Hope For Child Sexual Abuse Victims
The recent passage of A.B. 218 in California — extending the statute of limitations for child sexual abuse cases — will pose challenges for the justice system, but some of the burdens posed by abuse will finally be shifted from survivors to accused abusers and the organizations that enabled them, says retired Los Angeles Superior Court judge Scott Gordon.
-
Core Rights Of Accused At Issue In High Court's New Term
The U.S. Supreme Court's upcoming decisions in several criminal cases this term will determine whether certain rights of the accused — some that many people would be surprised to learn are unsettled — are assured by the Constitution, say Harry Sandick and Jacob Newman at Patterson Belknap.