Category «Courts»

ABA Free Legal Answers reaches milestone with 100,000 inquiries since launch

ABA Free Legal Answers: “An online version of the walk-in clinic model where clients request brief advice and counsel about a specific civil legal issue from a volunteer lawyer. Free Legal Answers is a virtual legal advice clinic. Qualifying users post their civil legal question to their state’s website. Lawyers provide information and basic legal …

Subjects: Courts, Economy, Legal Research

LexisNexis Offers Free Comprehensive COVID-19 News Coverage

“LexisNexis® Legal & Professional, a leading global provider of information and analytics, today announced two free resources from Law360® and Lexis Practice Advisor® to help legal professionals, lawmakers and business leaders become better informed and successfully navigate the legal issues and intricacies surrounding the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19). Law360 has launched a dedicated COVID-19 page containing …

Subjects: Courts, Economy, Financial System, Government Documents, Health Care, Knowledge Management, Legal Research

These Judges Are Shifting the Appeals Courts to the Right

The New York Times –  Five takeaways from an examination by The New York Times reveal how President Trump has reshaped the federal judiciary. “President Trump made overhauling the federal judiciary one of his top priorities, moving with particular speed to infuse the highly influential appeals courts with reliably conservative judges. Working with his Republican …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Courts, Government Documents, Legal Research

Federal judge calls Chief Justice Roberts ‘masterpiece of disingenuousness’ in law review article

ABA Journal: “A federal judge appointed by President Bill Clinton is criticizing the U.S. Supreme Court’s conservative majority for “undermining American democracy” by weakening the Voting Rights Act, failing to rein in partisan gerrymandering, and increasing the economic and political power of corporations. U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman of Milwaukee airs his dissatisfaction in an …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Courts, Government Documents, Legal Research

Federal courts are canceling proceedings and restricting visitors amid coronavirus concerns

ABA Journal: “Some federal courts are changing or suspending some operations as a result of concerns about the coronavirus. The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington has suspended all civil and criminal matters that require in-court appearances. Courthouses remain open for filings, according to a press release and coverage by Law360 and …

Subjects: Courts, Government Documents, Legal Research

Georgetown Prof Explains The Rise Of Nonlawyer Navigators

Law360: “Each year, 30 million people lack legal representation in high-stakes civil court cases involving evictions, restraining orders, child custody and more. They do not have the statutory right to an attorney. If they cannot afford one, none is provided to them. Lawyers cannot close this so-called justice gap by themselves: Even if every licensed …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Courts, Government Documents, Knowledge Management, Legal Research

Corporate and White-Collar Prosecutions At All-Time Lows Inbox

The Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse – “The latest available case-by-case records from the Department of Justice show that the prosecution of white-collar offenders in January 2020 reached an all-time low since tracking began during the Reagan Administration. Only 359 defendants were prosecuted. Almost all of these were individuals rather than businesses. January 2020’s prosecutions continued …

Subjects: Courts, Economy, Financial System, Legal Research

Use Amazon, Uber or Walmart.com? You’ve probably signed away your right to sue them

CNN Business: “Tucked into the sign-up process for many popular e-commerce sites and apps are dense terms-of-service agreements that legal experts say are changing the nature of consumer transactions, creating a veil of secrecy around how these companies function. The small print in these documents requires all signatories to agree to binding arbitration and to …

Subjects: Courts, E-Commerce, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research

Forest Service says Appalachian Trail isn’t “land” in pipeline fight at SCOTUS

Quartz: “It’s not every Supreme Court brief that goes off the beaten legal path, supplementing jurisprudence with humor and spicing up statutory interpretation with devastating wit. But the filing from environmentalists fighting the US Forest Service (USFS) over its grant of a license for a gas pipeline through the Appalachian Trail is one such gem.  …

Subjects: Climate Change, Courts, Environmental Law, Government Documents, Legal Research

Classaction.gov

Rose, Amanda M., Classaction.gov (February 10, 2020). Vanderbilt Law Research Paper No. 20-05. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3534317 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3534317 “This Essay proposes the creation of a federally-run class action website and supporting administration (collectively, Classaction.gov) that would both operate a comprehensive research database on class actions and assume many of the notice and claims processing …

Subjects: Courts, E-Government, Government Documents, Legal Research

Life Sentenced Population Exceeds Entire Prison Population in 1970

The Sentencing Project: “Nationwide there are more people serving life sentences today (206,000) than the entire prison population in 1970 (196,000), according to a new fact sheet released by The Sentencing Project’s Campaign to End Life Imprisonment. Starting in the 1970s, the United States’s prison population began its steady upward climb to the vastly overcrowded …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Courts, Government Documents