Access to Justice

March 23, 2023
Mich. High Court Mulls New Rule That Helps Indigent Clients

The Michigan Supreme Court is eyeing a change to the state's rules of professional conduct that would allow attorneys to help certain clients out with transportation and other amenities during court proceedings, potentially furthering the court's recent focus on increasing access to justice in the state.
March 23, 2023
Reed Smith's Sachnoff Remembered As Pro Bono Icon

The Chicago legal community is mourning the loss of longtime Reed Smith LLP attorney Lowell Sachnoff while celebrating his impact, which ranged from passionately advocating for the rights of transgender people and for prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay to mentoring generations of young lawyers he affectionately called his "ducklings."
March 22, 2023
Pa. Gov. Calls For State-Level Public Defender Funding

Gov. Josh Shapiro urged members of the Philadelphia Bar Association on Wednesday to support dedicating $10 million of his $44 billion budget proposal to end Pennsylvania's distinction as being the only state to not provide state-level funding to public defenders.
March 21, 2023
Bipartisan Report Recommends Axing Mandatory Minimums

A new study co-chaired by Sally Yates, the Obama administration's former deputy attorney general, and former Republican Congressman Trey Gowdy recommends doing away with mandatory minimum sentences and increasing parole opportunities to cut down on long prison sentences, which they say are often wasteful and ineffective.
March 17, 2023
Georgetown Tech Program To Begin In Tenn., Utah, Kan.

The Georgetown University Law Center has announced the first three court projects selected for its inaugural Judicial Innovation Fellowship, which will embed technologists and software designers in state, local and tribal courts to develop tech-based solutions to improve access to the judicial system.
March 10, 2023
Stoel Rives, Dorsey Attys Break Ground For Minn. Detainees

In a win for two Minnesota Sex Offender Program patients left waiting for more than two years after being deemed eligible to move out of lockdown confinement, attorneys at Stoel Rives LLP and Dorsey & Whitney LLP recently secured a significant ruling requiring speedier state action on court-ordered transfers.
March 10, 2023
Attys Work To Take The 'Civil' Out Of Civil Forfeiture

A case pending before the Nevada Supreme Court is the latest in a nationwide battle to try and make civil forfeiture, a process through which the government can seize property from criminal defendants, a part of criminal court proceedings. Critics of civil forfeiture say that conducting seizures through separate civil cases violates double jeopardy and due process protections, and deprives those facing forfeiture of legal representation.
March 10, 2023
NY Lawmakers Renew Push To Ban 'Predatory' Court Fees

New York levies a mandatory surcharge on every criminal conviction, whether it’s for a violation, a misdemeanor or a felony. In some cases, court fees can add up to hundreds of dollars, and critics say the levies fall disproportionately on the backs of low-income residents. A proposed bill would eliminate them.
March 08, 2023
Senate Votes Down DC's Revised Criminal Code

The U.S. Senate voted Wednesday 81-14-1 to block Washington, D.C.'s revised criminal code from taking effect, a move that would leave in place a 122-year-old code that's been described as unclear and piecemeal, and highlights the district's unique hurdles to self-governance.
March 08, 2023
Conn. Court Axes Class Action Over State's 'Pay To Stay' Law

A federal judge in Connecticut on Monday told three former inmates they had no standing to challenge the state's attorney general over a controversial law that allows the state to sue prisoners for the costs of their incarceration.
February 24, 2023
Retired Atty's Fight To Help End DC Driver License Penalties

After retiring in 2018 from several decades of government work, a former U.S. Department of Labor attorney found a new opportunity to serve the public as he recently helped mount a successful challenge to a Washington, D.C., rule barring individuals with unpaid fines from obtaining or renewing driver licenses.
February 24, 2023
ICE, Prison Co. Targeted Detainee Hunger Strikers, Suit Says

Staff at two U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facilities in California regularly retaliated against migrant detainees for engaging in hunger strikes, including by denying them basic hygiene supplies and threatening solitary confinement, a new lawsuit alleges.
February 24, 2023
New Law Helps Lathrop, Bryan Cave Win Mo. Exoneration

Relying on a recently passed state law giving prosecutors new authority to challenge wrongful convictions, attorneys with Lathrop GPM and Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner won a ruling this month exonerating a St. Louis man following a 1995 murder conviction they said had been marred by false testimony.
February 24, 2023
Inside The Fight To Update DC's Criminal Code

As the District of Columbia prepares to enact a wholly revised criminal code to replace its jumbled set of statutory provisions cobbled together over 122 years, critics and congressional Republicans are objecting to a handful of provisions, including an end to most mandatory minimum sentences and reduced maximum sentences for certain violent offenses, insisting they would embolden criminals.
February 24, 2023
How Baton Rouge Activists Won A Rare Civil Rights Settlement

Activists who accused the Baton Rouge police of brutalizing them at a 2016 protest faced long odds as they sought to hold the department accountable. But two veteran civil rights attorneys helped secure the group a rare $1 million settlement this month as a two-week jury trial neared its conclusion.
February 24, 2023
Law360 Seeks Members For Its 2023 Editorial Boards

Law360 is looking for avid readers of our publications to serve as members of our 2023 editorial advisory boards.
February 22, 2023
Justices Say Ariz. Got Death Penalty Due Process Wrong

The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday said Arizona high court justices so wrongly interpreted the state's criminal procedure rules that federal review was warranted, in a death penalty appeal that spurred a 5-4 divide among the justices.
February 21, 2023
Use Of Plea Bargains Undermining Justice, ABA Report Says

The overuse of plea bargains in criminal prosecutions is undermining the criminal justice system's integrity, exacerbating its racial inequality and creating "perverse incentives" to prioritize expediency over fact-finding, according to an American Bar Association report issued Wednesday.
February 03, 2023
What The Tyre Nichols Case Means For Police Prosecutions

When Tyre Nichols was fatally beaten by Memphis, Tennessee, police last month, videos of the incident helped prompt local prosecutors to quickly bring second-degree murder charges against five of the officers involved — a highly unusual result that offers a window into the evolving state of police accountability in the U.S. Here, Law360 looks at some of the factors that make the Nichols case unusual, and what implications it could hold for future police prosecutions.
February 03, 2023
House Task Force Aims To Help Ex-Cons Thrive After Prison

More than two dozen members of Congress have banded together to create a new bipartisan task force focused on aiding former inmates' reentry into society.
February 03, 2023
Md. Court Watchers Push For Permanent Remote Access

Singer-songwriter Fiona Apple added another skill to her repertoire during the pandemic by becoming a citizen court-watcher, remotely observing hearings in the Washington, D.C., suburbs, and now she is part of a coalition advocating for a bill that would make it easier for the public to access court proceedings.
February 03, 2023
Gibson Dunn Aids Venezuelan Asylum-Seekers Bused To NYC

When Texas, Florida and Arizona authorities began busing tens of thousands of migrants from the Southern border to Northern cities last year, Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP attorneys stepped up to provide legal aid to hundreds of Venezuelan families applying for asylum in the U.S.
February 03, 2023
Calif. Federal Judge Orders Release Of Medical Pot Operator

A man convicted of running a California medical marijuana operation and sentenced to over two decades in federal prison is expected to walk free on Friday after a federal judge granted a motion to reduce his sentence.
February 02, 2023
Gov't Denies It's 'Not Playing Ball' On Remote Hearings

The federal government has rebuffed a claim by the American Immigration Lawyers Association that it is "not playing ball in a serious way" to provide a remote option for immigration hearings, saying the group was the uncooperative party.
February 02, 2023
DC Court Orders Better Legal Access At Ariz. ICE Center

A Washington, D.C., federal court ordered U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to improve access to counsel at an Arizona detention facility, saying the facility appears to have completely blocked attorneys' access to detainees.

Expert Analysis

The Pro Bono Law That United Congress

Those who perpetrate crimes are guaranteed the right to counsel, but victims of domestic violence and sexual assault are not. With the unanimously passed Pro Bono Work to Empower and Represent Act, I envision an army of lawyers helping break the cycle of abuse, says Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska.
Aggressive Stops And Frisks Won't Make Chicago Safer

Speaking recently to the International Association of Chiefs of Police, President Donald Trump called for stop-and-frisk practices in Chicago to reduce violent crime. But beyond the negative consequences of this approach, data supporting its effectiveness is sparse, say Dr. Tara Lai Quinlan and Northeastern University School of Law professor Deborah Ramirez.
How BigLaw Pro Bono Pros Can Promote Access To Justice

Allegra Nethery, president of the Association of Pro Bono Counsel, discusses opportunities for large law firms to make a difference.
The Pro Bono Policies Worth Adopting In Every State

A recent survey of attorneys across the country found that, despite broad opposition to mandatory pro bono, strong support exists for a number of statewide policies and initiatives to more effectively engage the private bar in pro bono work, says Latonia Haney Keith, associate dean of academics at Concordia University School of Law.
Using The Constitution To End Punishment Of The Poor

One hundred and fifty years after the ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment, lawyers are achieving real victories on the ground with new constitutional theories striking at both inequality and unfair process, says Brandon Garrett of Duke University School of Law.