Digital Commons Network^™

Meeting The Challenges Of High-Volume Civil Dockets, Hannah E. M. Lieberman, Paula Hannaford-Agor

Faculty Publications

Consumer-debt-collection, landlord/tenant, small-claims, and contract cases involving relatively small amounts comprise almost 80 percent of civil caseloads. This essay examines the challenges associated with high-volume civil dockets and summarizes recommendations to address these challenges and strengthen the integrity of the civil justice system.

Privatizing Public Litigation, Margaret H. Lemos

Faculty Scholarship

Government litigators increasingly use private resources—human and financial—to support their efforts in court. In some cases, government entities hire private lawyers to perform legal work on behalf of the government; in others, they draw on private donations to fund litigation; and in some cases they do both, relying on privately funded private lawyers to litigate cases in the government’s name. These mergers of public and private can be understood as part of broader trends toward the privatization of government services. This Article uses lessons from the privatization debates to illuminate the likely costs and benefits of bringing private actors into …

Domestic Violence And The Politics Of Self-Help, Elizabeth L. Macdowell

Scholarly Works

Self-help programs are conceptualized as alternatives to attorney representation that can help both courts and unrepresented litigants. The rhetoric of self-help also typically includes empowering unrepresented individuals to help themselves. But how do self-help programs respond to litigants’ efforts at self-advocacy? This Article reports findings from a study of courthouse self-help programs assisting unrepresented litigants applying for protection orders. The central finding is that self-help staff members were not neutral in the provision of services despite a professed ethic of neutrality. Using the sociological concept of demeanor, this Article shows that staff members rewarded protection order applicants who conformed to …

Rwu Law Launches Legal Clinic For Disabled Veterans, Roger Williams University School Of Law

School of Law Conferences, Lectures & Events

No abstract provided.

Newsroom: Law Clinic For Disabled Veterans, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

The Standing Of The Public Interest, Amitai Etzioni

Barry Law Review

No abstract provided.

Federalism, Federal Courts, And Victims' Rights, Michael E. Solimine, Kathryn Elvey

Catholic University Law Review

One of the most striking developments in American criminal law and procedure in the past four decades has been the widespread establishment of victims’ rights at both the federal and state levels. A conspicuous exception to the success of the victims’ rights movement has been the failure of Congress to pass a proposed amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would uniformly establish such rights in all federal and state courts. Advanced by both private organizations and state officials, and with bipartisan support in Congress, bills establishing a Victims’ Rights Amendment (VRA) have been introduced several times in the past three …

Newsroom: Judge Edward Clifton Joins Faculty, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

The Inversion Of Rights And Power, Philip Hamburger

Buffalo Law Review

No abstract provided.

A New Public-Interest Appellate Model: Public Counsel's Court-Based Self-Help Clinic And Pro Bono Triage For Indigent Pro Se Civil Litigants On Appeal, Meehan Rasch

The Journal of Appellate Practice and Process

No abstract provided.

Oral Argument In The Early Roberts Court: A Qualitative And Quantitative Analysis Of Individual Justice Behavior, James C. Phillips, Edward L. Carter

The Journal of Appellate Practice and Process

No abstract provided.

Appellate Review Of Unpreserved Questions In Criminal Cases: An Attempt To Define The Interest Of Justice, Larry Cunningham

The Journal of Appellate Practice and Process

No abstract provided.

The American Inns Of Court: Preparing Our Students For Ethical Practice, Joryn Jenkins

Akron Law Review

Despite the recognition of the merit and effectiveness of the American Inns of Court concept, and despite the rapid growth of this burgeoning movement, and despite the intrinsic involvement of over one thousand law students and of nearly one hundred law schools affiliated with Inns across the country, many legal educators are unaware of the Inns' existence, purpose, possibilities, and successes. Why should this ignorance be remedied?

Access To Justice For Asylum Seekers: Developing An Effective Model Of Holistic Asylum Representation, Sabrineh Ardalan

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Abducted, beaten, and tortured by government forces that accused him of supporting an opposition group, Matthew fled to the United States with the help of his church pastor.1 The pastor lent Matthew money and helped him obtain a passport and a visa. The pastor also put Matthew in touch with an acquaintance in Boston, who gave him a place to stay for a short time and encouraged him to apply for asylum. The acquaintance sat down with Matthew and helped him fill out the asylum application form. He told Matthew to be as specific and detailed as possible since that …

Spreading Justice To Rural Montana: Rurality's Impacts On Supply And Demand For Legal Services In Montana, Hillary A. Wandler

Montana Law Review

No abstract provided.

Public Interest Lawyering & Judicial Politics: Four Cases Worth A Second Look In Williams-Yulee V. The Florida Bar, Ruthann Robson

Publications and Research

This "First Look" Essay argues that the Court should consider public interest lawyering when it decides a First Amendment challenge to the Canon prohibiting judicial candidates from soliciting money in Williams-Yulee v. The Florida Bar. It suggests that four cases are worth a "second look": Republican Party of Minnesota v. White (2002); Caperton v. A.T. Massey Coal Co. (2009); Shelley v. Kraemer (1948); and a Florida Supreme Court case involving discipline of a judge, In re Hawkins.

Making Turner A Reality - - Improving Access To Justice Through Court-Annexed Resource Centers And Same Day Presentation, Stacy Brustin

Scholarly Articles

This article will propose recommendations for implementing meaningful "alternative procedural safeguards." It will highlight a program that uses an innovative model of pro se assistance and limited representation, and will discuss the limitations that even the most innovative programs face in trying to offer adequate alternatives to full representation. The article will also analyze the ethical obstacles that court-based assistance programs face, and offer strategies that attorneys can use to meet their ethical duties regarding confidentiality, competence, avoidance of conflicts of interest, and independence of professional judgment.

While the procedural safeguards that the Court suggests in Turner might, in theory, …

Reimagining Access To Justice In The Poor People’S Courts, Elizabeth L. Macdowell

Scholarly Works

Access to justice efforts have been focused more on access than justice, due in part to the framing of access to justice issues around the presence or absence of lawyers. This article argues that access to justice scholars and activists should also think about social justice and provides a roadmap for running a legal services program geared toward making court systems more just. The article also further develops the concept of “poor people’s courts,” a term that has been used to describe courts serving large numbers of low-income people without representation. The article argues that access to justice efforts can …

The Downfall Of Auer Deference: Veterans Law At The Federal Circuit In 2014, Victoria Hadfield Moshiashwili

American University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Rationalizing Cost Allocation In Civil Discovery, A. Benjamin Spencer

Faculty Publications

A movement is afoot to revise the longstanding presumption that in civil litigation the producing party bears the cost of production in response to discovery requests. An amendment to Rule 26( c )-which took effect in December 2015-makes explicit courts' authority to issue protective orders that shift discovery costs away from producing parties. But this authority is not new; what is new is what may be coming next-an undoing of the producer-pays presumption itself. Thus far, the sentiment to move in this direction has been slightly below the radar, advocated by probusiness interest groups and advocates before the Advisory Committee …

Civil Justice Initiative: The Landscape Of Civil Litigation In State Courts, Paula Hannaford-Agor, Scott Graves, Shelley Spacek Miller

Faculty Publications

This study was undertaken to inform the deliberations of the Conference of Chief Justices (CCJ) Civil Justice Improvements Committee as it developed recommendations based on evidence-based practices to improve civil case processing in state courts. Much of the debate concerning the American justice system focuses on procedural issues that add complexity to civil litigation, resulting in additional cost and delay and undermining access to justice. Many commentators are alarmed by the increasing privatization of the civil justice system and particularly by the dramatic decline in the rates of civil bench and jury trials. In addition, substantially reduced budgetary resources since …

Closing The Doors To Justice: A Critique Of Pimentel V. Dreyfus And The Application Of Legal Formalism To The Elimination Of Food Assistance Benefits For Legal Immigrants, Hannah Zommick

Seattle University Law Review

This Comment contends that the Ninth Circuit’s opinion in Pimentel v. Dreyfus employed a legal formalist approach and that by applying this framework, the court prevented legal immigrants, who were caught between the strict eligibility restrictions of welfare reform, from asserting their rights through the justice system. The legal formalist approach “treats the law as a set of scientific formulae or principles that are derived from the study of case law. These principles create an internal analytical framework which, when applied to a set of facts, leads the decision maker, through logical deduction, to the correct outcome in a case.” …

Speedy Trial As A Viable Challenge To Chronic Underfunding In Indigent-Defense Systems, Emily Rose

Michigan Law Review

Across the country, underresourced indigent-defense systems create delays in taking cases to trial at both the state and federal levels. Attempts to increase funding for indigent defense by bringing ineffective assistance of counsel claims have been thwarted by high procedural and substantive hurdles, and consequently these attempts have failed to bring significant change. This Note argues that, because ineffective assistance of counsel litigation is most likely a dead end for system-wide reform, indigent defenders should challenge the constitutionality of underfunding based on the Sixth Amendment guarantee of speedy trial. Existing speedy trial jurisprudence suggests that the overworking and furloughing of …

Families Matter: Recommendations To Improve Outcomes For Children And Families In Court, Barbara A. Babb, Gloria Danziger

All Faculty Scholarship

The Families Matter initiative was designed as a major, multi-year undertaking to develop legal practice methods and approaches to reduce the destructive consequences of the family legal process. The initiative was intended to respond to the need for deep and meaningful reform of the family law process.

Convened in June 2010 by the University of Baltimore School of Law Sayra and Neil Meyerhoff Center for Families, Children and the Courts (CFCC), the Families Matter Symposium brought together an interdisciplinary group of family law experts for two days at the University of Baltimore to identify problems regarding the practice of family …

Unauthorized Practice Of Law And Meaningful Access To The Courts: Is Law Too Important To Be Left To Lawyers?, Matthew Longobardi

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Unreviewable Irredeemable Child: Why The District Of Columbia Needs Reverse Waiver, Jamie Stevens

University of the District of Columbia Law Review

In 2005 the U.S. Department of Justice estimated that adult criminal courts prosecuted 23,000 cases involving defendants under the age of eighteen nationwide. 2 This means that those defendants faced conviction and sentencing in adult courts. Transfer of those under eighteen into adult criminal court has become the states' first line of defense in the fight against youth crime. However, recent Supreme Court decisions have cast doubt on the wisdom, and even the constitutionality of that approach. Roper v. Simmons held that the Eighth Amendment prohibits the death penalty for anyone under eighteen years of age. 3 Graham v. Florida …

A Primer On Professionalism For Doctrinal Professors, Paula Schaefer

Tennessee Law Review

No abstract provided.

Disparity In Judicial Misconduct Cases: Color-Blind Diversity?, Athena D. Mutua

Journal Articles

This article presents and analyzes preliminary data on racial and gender disparities in state judicial disciplinary actions. Studies of demographic disparities in the context of judicial discipline do not exist. This paper presents a first past and preliminary look at the data collected on the issue and assembled into a database. The article is also motivated by the resistance encountered to inquiries into the demographic profile of the state bench and its judges. As such, it also tells the story of the journey undertaken to secure this information and critiques what the author terms a practice of colorblind diversity. Initially …

Nlrb V. Noel Canning Presents A Nonjusticiable Political Question, Victor Williams

Cardozo Law Review de•novo

This Article argues that the Noel Canning challenge to the President’s use of his recess appointment authority presents a nonjusticiable political question. The work draws from arguments developed for this author’s Supreme Court amicus briefs in Noel Canning, other amicus briefs lodged during the past year for related actions in the Third, Fourth, Seventh, Ninth, and D.C. Circuits, and a variety of this author’s commentary on federal appointments.

Give Ghosts A Chance: Why Federal Courts Should Cease Sanctioning Every Legal Ghostwriter, Blake G. Tanase

Georgia Law Review

For decades, federal judges have punished attorneys who draft documents for pro se litigants. Meanwhile, many states and the American Bar Association have come to accept this practice as beneficial for low-income litigants and the legal system at large. The Second Circuit recently broke from the federal tradition and found that an attorney's so-called "ghostwriting"of litigation documents for pro se litigants was not sanctionable conduct. That court noted the changes taking place at the state level and rejected other federal courts' justifications for sanctioning legal ghostwriting, but did not elaborate as to why legal ghostwriting should be considered acceptable attorney …