Digital Commons Network^™

Oh No, Another Chatgpt Post: Incorporating Ai-Powered Chatbots Into Legal Research Exercises And Assignments, Olivia Smith Schlinck

Library Staff Online Writings

Since it was launched at the end of November 2022, the discourse around ChatGPT and AI search tools has been unrelenting. What impact will AI-powered chatbots have on education? Will students submit ChatGPT-written essays and homework assignments? Will AI make lawyers obsolete? Look, this chatbot just passed the bar exam! Wait a minute—is this thing. . . sentient?

Mmu: 03/20/23–03/26/23, Student Bar Association

Monday Morning Update

This Week @ NDLS

Mass Times

Commons Daily Menu

General Announcements

NDLS Faculty & Staff Spotlights: Patti McLaughlin

Ask a 3L: Josh Lacoste

Jackie's Corner

Impacted Communities Leading Authentic Legal Mobilization: A Refugee-Led Access-To-Justice Story, Douglas Smith

Journal of Civil Rights and Economic Development

(Excerpt)

I have a modest proposal to begin addressing the civil access-to-justice problem in the United States: eliminate the barriers for refugees to provide legal representation. In discussions of access to civil justice, immigration and immigrant rights compel our attention—images of children as young as three facing deportation without representation and non-citizens detained because of civil immigration infractions come to mind. But we hear less about the access-to-justice challenges of immigrants fighting for their rights to safe housing, public benefits, education for their children, or often-contingent or under-the-table jobs. The cries of immigrant communities about informal and formal threats from …

A Better Way: Uncoupling The Right To Counsel With The Threat Of Deportation For Unaccompanied Immigrant Children And Beyond, Laura Barrera

Journal of Civil Rights and Economic Development

(Excerpt)

The stakes could not be higher in immigration court—families are separated; people are banished from their communities with little hope of ever legally returning; judges relegate individuals to seemingly arbitrary and indefinite detention in remote locations. Each of these hardships—and more—flow from the threat of deportation. As the Supreme Court noted in 1922, deportation “may result . . . in . . . all that makes life worth living.”

As has been the unfortunate norm in civil proceedings, many individuals face these trials without an attorney by their side because while the law states that respondents in immigration court …

Expanding The Right To Counsel In Eviction Cases: Arguments For And Limitations Of "Civil Gideon" Laws In A Post-Covid 19 World, Jennifer S. Prusak

Journal of Civil Rights and Economic Development

(Excerpt)

With the cost of housing rising nationwide and incomes largely failing to keep pace with this increase, the United States is in the midst of interrelated affordable housing and eviction crises. The housing affordability metric that has long been the bedrock of American housing policy is that households should spend no more than thirty percent of their income on housing. This is no longer an attainable goal for many Americans. By 2017, forty-eight percent of renter households were “rent burdened”—they paid more than thirty percent of their income in rent. Over a quarter of American renters, or 11 million …

Patching The Patchwork: Moving The Civil Right To Counsel Forward With Key Data, Maria Roumiantseva

Journal of Civil Rights and Economic Development

(Excerpt)

While the pandemic has exposed many long-standing realities about the United States, the destructive everyday crisis of eviction is top of mind as moratoria have now expired and rental assistance funds dissipate with no anticipated replenishment. Therefore, though this piece addresses legal representation in civil legal proceedings more broadly, we will start with an eviction story.

It can be taken as fact that not too far from where you are reading this piece, a tenant is facing an eviction unrepresented. She cannot afford a private attorney. She is income eligible for legal aid, but the office near her home …

Dean's Desk: Recognizing Iu Maurer Alumnae Who Have Made A Difference, Christiana Ochoa

Christiana Ochoa (7/22-10/22 Acting; 11/2022-)

A couple weeks ago, I had the opportunity to welcome future law students as part of our annual Admitted Student Day. From their seats in the Kathleen and Ann DeLaney Moot Court Room, they look to the front of the room where they see the portraits of four trailblazing alumnae who have made indelible marks on the judiciary. Juanita Kidd Stout ’48, Sue Shields ’61, Linda Chezem ’71 and Loretta Rush ’83 all face out into the sea of newly admitted students who one day hope to forge paths of their own.As we celebrate Women’s History Month, I wanted to …

“Title Ix Isn’T For You, It’S For The University”: Sexual Violence Survivors’ Experiences Of Institutional Betrayal In Title Ix Investigations, Katherine Lorenz, Rebecca Hayes, Cathrine Jacobsen

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

Institutional betrayal occurs when an institution fails to appropriately respond to harm experienced by a member of the institution, such as by failing to act or by mishandling cases. The concept has been applied to higher education institution’s (HEI’s) response to students who experience sexual violence, particularly Title IX investigations, showing that institutional betrayal is common among student survivors. Yet, to our knowledge, institutional betrayal in HEI Title IX investigations has not been qualitatively explored. We conducted interviews of graduate and undergraduate student sexual violence survivors (n=21) who participated in a Title IX investigation at a U.S. HEI to understand …

Backlash: After 40 Years Of Tort Reform Noise, Let's Change The Tone, Undo The Harm, And Correct The Big Lie, Andrew F. Popper

Journal of Legislation

No abstract provided.

Access To Justice In The Southeast, Roger V. Skalbeck

Law Conference Materials

“Access to Justice in the Southeast” provides an overview of all Access to Justice Commission organizations in the Southeastern region of the United States. This guide also includes links to statewide legal information platforms, together with descriptions and links to additional region-specific efforts. The guide is supplemented with additional resources, including links to each region’s ABA Free Legal Answers site, when available. The guide was created in conjunction with the 2023 Southeastern Association of Law Libraries conference, held in Richmond, Virginia.

The Continued Relevance Of Domestic Partnerships In The Post-Obergefell United States, Grace J. Anderson

Minnesota Journal of Law & Inequality

No abstract provided.

Elevating Justice Institute Program Guide, Roger V. Skalbeck

Law Conference Materials

On March 9, 2023, the University of Richmond Law Library hosted the Elevating Justice Institute in our Moot Courtroom. The day-long event provided collaborative sessions for participants to work in conjunction with presenters to explore topics and techniques in delivering legal services. Speakers included two state judges as well as several leaders in the Access to Justice movement. More than 30 people participated in the event, including librarians, law students, judges, attorneys and a variety of advocates active in Access to Justice.

The program guide provides biographical information about Institute speakers and planners, together with visual inspiration for a creative …

Vol. 64, No. 08 (March 6, 2023)

Indiana Law Annotated

No abstract provided.

Employee Of The Month: Exploring Whether An Employee's Act Of Fraud May Be Imputed To His Employer Under Agency Principles, Max Birmingham

DePaul Business & Commercial Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Clinics, The Cloud, And Protecting Client Data In The Age Of Remote Lawyering, Andrew C. Budzinski

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

Technology has become central to law practice. Attorneys have an ethical obligation to understand how that technology works, how it can facilitate client representation—and the risks it poses to the confidentiality of clients’ electronically-stored data. Law school clinics seem to fall behind the curve on this obligation. Some maintain outdated protocols, and some have no protocols at all, to manage and safeguard client data. This leaves client data less secure than it ought to be, risking harm to clients, ethical violations for attorneys, and missed opportunities to communicate the importance of ethical technology use to clinic students.

This Article offers …

Faculty Masthead

Georgia State University Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution And Legal Education, Steven R. Smith

Georgia State University Law Review

A “Fourth Industrial Revolution” (4IR) will dramatically change current law students’ careers. Innovations in technology, business, and social structures will require different and more sophisticated legal services. Law school graduates will be responsible for harnessing, encouraging, and establishing legal controls that offer society the benefits of these new technologies while limiting the undesirable side effects. At the same time, the recurring, repetitive practice of law will begin to disappear as more work is done much cheaper and better by machines.

The 4IR presents extraordinary opportunities for law schools, the legal profession, and graduates, but it also presents significant challenges. To …

The Lawyer's Duty Of Tech Competence Post-Covid: Why Georgia Needs A New Professional Rule Now—More Than Ever, Julia Webb

Georgia State University Law Review

The American Bar Association (ABA) promulgates the Model Rules for Professional Conduct (Model Rules), which prescribe the behavior with which lawyers must comply in demonstrating competency to practice law. In 2012, the ABA updated Comment 8 to Model Rule 1.1 to require maintaining competence in the “benefits and risks associated with relevant technology,” also known as a lawyer’s “duty of technological competence.” A decade later, the majority of state bar associations have adopted and implemented this language. Georgia, however, remains among the last ten states that have not yet formally adopted the duty of technological competence. The COVID-19 pandemic forced …

Increasing Housing Stability Through State-Funded Community Mediation Delivered By The Massachusetts Housing Mediation Program (Hmp) In Fy2022, Madhawa Palihapitiya, David Sulewski, Karina Zeferino, Jarling Ho

Massachusetts Office of Public Collaboration Publications

This report presents findings and recommendations from an evaluation of the Massachusetts Housing Mediation Program (HMP) administered by the MA Office of Public Collaboration (MOPC) at the University of Massachusetts Boston in partnership with 11 Community Mediation Centers (Centers). The program is funded by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and implemented in partnership with the Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD). The program was initially part of the Governor’s Eviction Diversion Initiative (EDI), which ended in the latter half of FY2022 and is continuing as an intervention to support housing stability. The evaluation was conducted by MOPC’s research unit comprised …

Community Justice Services: Models From Around The World, Lisa Moore

Canadian Forum on Civil Justice

This document examines community justice services. It highlights approaches and models for local justice outreach and legal assistance effectuated by organizations around the world. The organizations profiled in this document all provide legal assistance in some form to underserved, underprivileged, vulnerable, and/or marginalized populations. In many cases, geographic location is an important factor determining who can access legal help, but it is not the only factor or necessarily a prerequisite. Across the diverse community justice services included in this document, legal assistance is provided virtually, in-person, by phone, or in hybrid formats to individuals living within or beyond a given …

Unauthorized Practice Of Law Issues For Banking Lawyers, David J. Burge

North Carolina Banking Institute

No abstract provided.

Strengths And Opportunities For Sustainability, Ab Currie

Canadian Forum on Civil Justice

At the mid-point of this three-year pilot project, the evidence suggests that the Mobile Rural Law Van is accomplishing its primary objective of better meeting the needs of people in rural Wellington County and North Halton. Is the success after two summers and one winter of operation sustainable? Sustainability is about more than just money, more than cost and about cost per person served. Sustainability depends on how the project operates and how it is connected with the community being served. This paper identifies the non-monetary factors that make the Law Van project sustainable, suggesting adjustments that might be made …

Why State Courts Should Authorize Nonlawyers To Practice Law, Bruce A. Green

Fordham Law Review

The unauthorized practice of law (“UPL”) is a crime in most states. Many scholars have criticized UPL laws as unnecessary impediments to low-income individuals’ ability to obtain legal help. Meanwhile, courts often defend these laws by analogizing the dangers posed by unlicensed legal practice to those posed by unlicensed medical practice. Chronicling two notable UPL suits to illustrate how nonlawyers may help low-income individuals seeking legal assistance and arguing that comparison to the medical profession in many ways favors liberalizing UPL enforcement, Professor Bruce Green concludes that state courts should allow nonlawyers greater freedom to provide legal assistance.

Selected Dispute Resolution Bibliography, Shannon Moldaver, Trevor C. W. Farrow

Articles & Book Chapters

Included in this bibliography is a selected set of dispute resolution and related professional responsibility and access to justice readings, primarily (although not exclusively) with a general negotiation and mediation focus. This bibliography is not comprehensive. Rather – given the breadth of dispute resolution, legal process, professional responsibility, and access to justice materials available – this bibliography includes a brief sampling of available readings that may be of interest to those studying, practicing, or thinking about dispute resolution.

Is It Time For Federal Regulation Of The Tax Preparer Industry? New Insights From Legal And Empirical Developments, Jessica A. Magaldi, Matthew Reidenbach, Jonathan S. Sales, John S. Treu

Marquette Law Review

The tax preparer industry is unusual in that it involves the interpretation of an intricate and complicated tax code, but imposes no minimum requirements of competency because the industry is largely unregulated. A study by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) indicated that unregulated tax preparers commit significantly higher error rates and, based in part on that study’s findings, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) attempted to regulate the tax preparer industry nationwide under the Registered Tax Return Preparer (RTRP) regime. This RTRP program was invalidated in Loving v. IRS, however, leaving the industry largely unregulated, except in the small minority …

Grabbing The Bull By The Horns: Jurisprudential, Ethical, And Other Lessons For Lawyers And Law Students In The Immigration Labyrinth And Beyond, Mark L. Jones

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Heirs' Property Dilemma: How Stronger Federal Policies Can Help Narrow The Racial Wealth Gap, Kendall B. Bargeman

North Carolina Banking Institute

No abstract provided.

Theseus In The Labyrinth: How State Constitutions Can Slay The Procedural Minotaur, Marcus A. Gadson

Washington Law Review

Civil procedure is one of the biggest hurdles to access to justice. An array of rules and interpretations of those rules have turned lawsuits into meandering mazes with a procedural minotaur waiting to gobble up meritorious claims. The problem is especially acute for the many Americans without abundant resources or access to a lawyer. Fortunately, there is a ready remedy, albeit one access to justice advocates have ignored: state constitutions. Forty state constitutions, which protect hundreds of millions of Americans, generally guarantee “[t]hat all courts shall be open, and every person, for an injury done him in his person, property …

Beyond Legal Deserts: Access To Counsel For Immigrants Facing Removal, Emily Ryo, Reed Humphrey

North Carolina Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Shape Of A Life: Deborah L. Rhode In Memoriam, David Luban

Fordham Law Review

In this Essay honoring the life and work of Professor Deborah Rhode, Professor David Luban examines Professor Rhode's moral sensibility, which runs through all her writings, and situates this sensibility on a map of moral theories.