Access to Justice

  • March 10, 2025

    Bad Police Work Led To 30-Year Sentence, Conn. Jury Told

    A Connecticut man who served 30 years in prison for a murder he did not commit should be compensated because one local police officer failed to disclose key evidence and another sat by as the state police fed facts to an informant, his attorneys told a federal jury Monday afternoon.

  • March 10, 2025

    DC Ethics Hearing Over Anti-Trump Protest Arrests To Kick Off

    A former federal prosecutor in Washington, D.C., is set to face an attorney ethics panel Tuesday in disciplinary proceedings that could shed new light on how the government handled key evidence in cases against hundreds of people arrested at protests of President Donald Trump's first inauguration in 2017.

  • March 07, 2025

    Calif. Bar Reenacts Civil Rights History In Courtroom Drama

    During the day, California Deputy Attorney General Arvon Perteet handles complex fraud cases, among other matters, for the state. But on a recent weeknight, he left his work behind and transformed into Thurgood Marshall in 1961, overseeing the work of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund in New York City.

  • March 07, 2025

    For Many Biden Clemency Grantees, Freedom Is On Hold

    Former President Joe Biden set records when he granted approximately 2,500 people clemency at the end of his term, but the process of getting out of prison for those people has not been so straightforward and two months later, a majority remain in custody.

  • March 07, 2025

    Trump DOJ's Shift Threatens To Upend Police Reform

    As the Trump administration abandons consent decrees — court-ordered agreements designed to curb police misconduct — experts warn that a crucial mechanism for law enforcement accountability is disappearing.

  • March 07, 2025

    NYC Bar Atty On New Shelter Advocacy Project

    The New York City Bar Association's pro bono arm recently rebranded and expanded its homeless assistance program into the Shelter Advocacy Project. Its leader, attorney Jennifer Quijano, talked to Law360 about how the program aims to tackle urgent day-to-day issues creating barriers for people who are homeless, such as storage facility disputes, shelter placement challenges, and housing voucher delays.

  • March 05, 2025

    NYU Law To Open Innocence Project Clinic Next Fall

    The NYU School of Law announced on Wednesday that it was opening a clinic with the Innocence Project next fall where students can work on nonprofit cases and learn about postconviction and wrongful-conviction litigation as part of an expansive new partnership. 

  • March 03, 2025

    Justices Pass On Reviewing Ohio Prisoner's Habeas Win

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to scrutinize a lower court ruling granting habeas corpus relief to an Ohio death row prisoner whom a biased judge had prevented from introducing new mitigating evidence at resentencing.

  • February 28, 2025

    Ex-Iranian Intel Official Accused Of Torture In Fla. Suit

    A former top Iranian intelligence official was accused of human rights abuses in a Florida federal lawsuit brought by three California men, alleging he played a major role in maintaining the deposed shah's repressive regime through the arrest, mass torture and imprisonment of perceived political dissidents.

  • February 28, 2025

    Advocates Step Up After EEOC About-Face On Gender Identity

    Two nonprofits taking up gender identity discrimination cases that the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is abandoning offers a preview of the role that advocacy organizations will play defending transgender workers as the Trump administration attacks their rights, experts said.

  • February 28, 2025

    Why Pro Bono Work Is Essential To Any Attorney's Practice

    Fordham University School of Law’s Dora Galacatos discusses the importance of civil justice work to an attorney’s practice and how law firms can design and implement successful pro bono programs.

  • February 27, 2025

    Conn. Supreme Court Snapshot: Water Rates, Judicial Attacks

    An Eversource unit's request to offset inflation and $42 million in new infrastructure projects through rate hikes will top the Connecticut Supreme Court's March docket, with the justices examining another in a list of challenges to state regulators' attempts to keep a lid on customer costs.

  • February 25, 2025

    High Court Mulls Bounds Of Supervised Release Sentencing

    Lower court judges have strayed from what Congress says are the only factors that may be considered when sentencing offenders for violating their supervised release, the Supreme Court heard Tuesday, as the justices address a circuit split regarding the purposes of such sentences.

  • February 25, 2025

    High Court Split Over Civil Rights Jury Trials For Prisoners

    The U.S. Supreme Court appeared evenly divided Tuesday over whether the Seventh Amendment guarantees prisoners the right to a jury trial when disputed facts regarding exhaustion of remedies are intertwined with their underlying claims, including allegations of sexual misconduct and retaliation.

  • February 25, 2025

    Justices Limit 'Prevailing Party' Status For Atty Fees

    Litigants will no longer be considered the "prevailing party" — and thus won't be eligible for attorney fees — if they achieve courtroom victories via preliminary injunction instead of a final judgment, the U.S. Supreme Court has found, in a ruling that's expected to be a blow to legal advocacy groups.

  • February 25, 2025

    High Court Orders New Trial In Okla. Death Row Case

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered a new trial for an Oklahoma inmate whose conviction and death sentence for a 1997 murder, the state confesses, was the product of prosecutors withholding evidence and knowingly presenting false testimony.

  • February 24, 2025

    Justices Weigh Potentially Key Standing Issue In DNA Case

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday aggressively probed whether reinstating a district court ruling finding Texas' postconviction DNA testing procedures unconstitutional would give a man on death row legal standing to seek DNA evidence that could prove he is not eligible for the death penalty.

  • February 21, 2025

    California Justices Accept Court Reporter Shortage Case

    The California Supreme Court has accepted a case that aims to address the state's court reporter shortage by mandating the use of electronic recording when court reporters are unavailable.

  • February 21, 2025

    Kim Kardashian Accused Of Misidentifying Death Row Inmate

    Kim Kardashian was sued Thursday in California state court one year after a photo the reality television star posted in an Instagram story allegedly identified the wrong man as a Texas prisoner on death row.

  • February 21, 2025

    Luigi Mangione Says His Rights Are Being Violated In NY Case

    An attorney for Luigi Mangione, the man accused of murdering UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, told a New York state court judge on Friday that his constitutional rights are being violated in the state case as federal prosecutors are "hanging the death penalty over" his head on related charges.

  • February 21, 2025

    How Uncovering Bias Took A Black Man Off Death Row In NC

    Attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and the Center for Death Penalty Litigation tell Law360 about how approaching a criminal case like a civil suit helped them convince a state court judge that racial discrimination tainted Hasson Bacote's trial for felony murder, and got Bacote's death sentence vacated.

  • February 21, 2025

    $25 Child Support Minimum A Symbol Of 'Broken' NY System

    In New York City, $25 doesn’t stretch very far. And yet, New York state law mandates a minimum child support order of $25 per month, even when the noncustodial parent has little or no income. This requirement can lead to unpayable debts for indigent parents, while offering little meaningful financial support to the custodial parent, legal aid attorneys told Law360.

  • February 21, 2025

    Justices Knock Ala. For Immunizing State Officials

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday ruled a group of Alabama unemployment applicants can pursue allegations that delays in the state's benefits review process violated their federal civil rights, holding a state law that requires litigants to exhaust administrative remedies before filing suit doesn't bar their procedural claims.

  • February 20, 2025

    Guantanamo Deportees Get Phone Access To Attys, Feds Say

    The U.S. government urged a D.C. federal judge to reject a request from the ACLU and other advocates to give unauthorized immigrants held at Guantanamo in-person access to lawyers, saying Thursday that the detainees have the ability to speak to attorneys by telephone.

  • February 19, 2025

    Orgs. Fear 'Complete Dismantling' Of Migrant Kids' Rights

    Legal service providers that help unaccompanied children navigate the immigration court system warned on Wednesday that the children's due process rights are at risk after the Trump administration turned off the federal funding tap.

Expert Analysis

  • What A Federal Kidnapping Case Means For Recovery Agents

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    A recent Eighth Circuit decision in U.S. v. Lozier reversing a ruling ordering a bounty hunter to face federal kidnapping charges, and ordering a new trial, raises pressing questions on the risks surrounding fugitive recovery and the balance between state and federal authority, says Ken Good at The Good Law Firm.

  • 11th Circ. Ruling Shows How AEDPA Limits Habeas Relief

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    The Eleventh Circuit's recent decision to uphold an Alabama man's death sentence reveals how the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act can prevent meaningful review and has eroded the power of habeas corpus petitions by forcing federal courts to pay extraordinary deference to state-level rulings, says Paul Shechtman at Yale Law School.

  • Deterring Dubious Prosecutions Could Avoid Pardon Issues

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    The controversial pardons by former President Joe Biden and President Donald Trump should spur a few key reforms to deter dubious prosecutions, ensuring that the legal system gets it right initially and earns the confidence of all Americans, say Marc Levin and Khalil Cumberbatch at the Council on Criminal Justice.

  • Accountant-Owned Law Firms Could Blur Ethical Lines

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    KPMG’s recent application to open a legal practice in Arizona represents the first overture by an accounting firm to take advantage of the state’s relaxed law firm ownership rules, but enforcing and supervising the practice of law by nonattorneys could prove particularly challenging, says Seth Laver at Goldberg Segalla.

  • DC Circ. Cellphone Ruling Upends Law Enforcement Protocol

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    The D.C. Circuit’s recent U.S. v. Brown decision, holding that forcibly requiring a defendant to unlock his cellphone with his fingerprint violated the Fifth Amendment, has significant implications for law enforcement, and may provide an opportunity for defense lawyers to suppress electronic evidence, says Sarah Sulkowski at Gelber & Santillo.

  • How High Court May Rule In First Step Act Resentencing Case

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    U.S. Supreme Court justices grappled with verb tenses and statutory intent in recent oral arguments in Hewitt v. U.S., a case involving an anomalous resentencing issue under the First Step Act, and though they may hold that the statute is unambiguous, they could also decide the case on narrow, practical grounds, say attorneys at Bracewell.

  • Felon Juror Exclusion Rationales Don't Hold Up To Scrutiny

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    After his felony conviction, President Donald Trump became one of 20 million-plus Americans who are banished from serving in our federal jury system, but the proffered justifications for excluding those with convictions from jury service are not supported by research, says James Binnall at California State University, Long Beach.

  • Open Courtrooms Are Vital For Transparency And Public Trust

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    Too often, public access to courtrooms is restricted without sufficient legal justification, and attorneys, judges and judicial oversight bodies must ensure courtrooms remain open to promote accountability and uphold constitutional principles, say Fordham Law graduate Olesya Lek and Parisa Djavaheri at Riza Realty.

  • Why The Public Distrusts The Legal System, And How To Fix It

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    Recent data shows that the public's attitudes toward the justice system and institutions in general are declining, but several reforms and practices could help restore public confidence, say Richard Gabriel and Michelle Rey LaRocca at the Trust in Justice Project.

  • Responsible Use Of AI Could Bridge The Justice Gap

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    The access to justice crisis continues to worsen in the U.S., but artificial intelligence has the potential to reverse this trend and close the justice gap if legal aid, court, pro bono, technology and law firm leaders work together, say Margaret Hagan at Stanford and Amy Groff at K&L Gates.

  • 2 Ways To Boost Court Flexibility, Improve Appearance Rates

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    Millions of people miss their court dates every year, leading to arrest warrants and snowballing consequences, but allowing for flexible scheduling and offering grace periods can promote appearance rates, improve court efficiency, and increase access to justice, say Shannon McAuliffe and Cameron French at ideas42.

  • Courts Must Reduce Impact Of Parental Incarceration On Kids

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    Research consistently shows that when a parent is incarcerated, the children left behind suffer myriad negative and long-lasting consequences, and courts must do more to guard against causing these additional harms, say Fulton County, Georgia, Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney and Yolanda Lewis at the Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute.

  • How Attorneys Can Support The ERA's Implementation

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    After the American Bar Association’s recent resolution affirming that the Equal Rights Amendment has met the constitutional standard for ratification, attorneys should consider ways to support the ERA’s implementation to ensure that gender equality is enshrined in the U.S. Constitution, says Kate Kelly at the Center for American Progress.

  • Protecting Survivor Privacy In High-Profile Sex Assault Cases

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    Multiple civil lawsuits filed against Sean "Diddy" Combs, with claims ranging from sexual assault and trafficking to violent physical beatings, provide important lessons for attorneys to take proactive measures to protect the survivor's anonymity and privacy, says Andrea Lewis at Searcy Denney.

  • 20 Years On, It's Time To Fix The Crime Victims' Rights Act

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    The Crime Victims’ Rights Act, enacted 20 years ago this month, was a good start toward helping survivors of crime, but it has fallen short in several key ways, and amendments are needed to ensure the legal system empowers and protects victims, says Bridgette Stumpf at Network for Victim Recovery.

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