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1. Selection & Retention of State Judges: Methods from Across the Country

   Publication

   It is no surprise that there is much confusion around how judges get to be judges in the United States. No two states use the same method to select and retain their judges, and even in individual states, the method may vary by the level of court and even location. Some states elect their judges in partisan contests; in some states, governors make appointments to the bench; in others, to limit the role ... MORE

2. Eighteen Ways Courts Should Use Technology to Better Serve Their Customers

   Publication

   Courts are—to a great extent—in the business of customer service. Yet often, their focus when upgrading their technology doesn’t extend beyond their own internal needs. That’s a recipe for disaster in a world where consumers are increasingly getting their needs met digitally and businesses failing to do this are quickly going out of business.

   This report provides a path f... MORE

3. A Strategy for Judicial Performance Evaluation in New York

   Publication

   Unfortunately, existing mechanisms in New York lack both the depth and breadth to provide information on judges and judicial candidates in a truly meaningful way. This need not be the case.

   Across the country, states have adopted judicial performance evaluation (JPE) programs that provide continuous, comprehensive assessments of the skills that each judge or judicial candidate brings to the bench.

4. Choosing Judges: Judicial Nominating Commissions and the Selection of Supreme Court Justices

   Publication

   This report details the judicial nominating commissions used to select supreme court justices in 30 states and the District of Columbia. In these jurisdictions, the nominating commission accepts applications for judicial vacancies, screens the applicants through steps laid out in state law, and recommends a shortlist of the best-qualified candidates to the governor for... MORE

5. Recommendations for Judicial Discipline Systems

   Publication

   The public must have confidence that judges who misbehave in office, who abuse their power or who undermine the justice system, are not above the law and will be disciplined. So, IAALS determined that we needed to better understand how judicial discipline systems work and provide suggestions for improving them.  

   After compiling information and analyses about discipline systems across the ... MORE

6. Interim Report on the Joint Project of the ACTL Task Force on Discovery and IAALS

   Publication

   The American College of Trial Lawyers (ACTL) Task Force on Discovery was appointed in June of 2007 by President David Beck to work jointly with the IAALS to explore problems associated with discovery. After extensive discussion, the Task Force and IAALS decided to administer a survey of ACTL’s Fellows to create a data base for further study. The survey grew out of an u... MORE

7. Reforming Our Civil Justice System: A Report on Progress and Promise

   Publication

   Since 2007, IAALS and the American College of Trial Lawyers Task Force on Discovery and Civil Justice have partnered to study cost and delay in America’s civil justice system, and propose solutions.

   One of the major themes that emerged was that our civil justice system is indeed plagued with cost and delay, making the system inaccessible for many and inefficient for all. In 2009, IAALS... MORE

8. Redesigning Divorce

   Publication

   Through our Court Compass project, IAALS has been rethinking legal processes by listening to and engaging the people who actually use the system. In four states across the country, we brought self-represented litigants and other legal system stakeholders together to develop potential solutions in the divorce and separation process. This report details our findings from these interactive design sprint workshops, where w... MORE

9. The Modern Family Court Judge: Knowledge, Qualities & Skills for Success

   Publication

   Family court judges make significant decisions affecting our nation's families, yet these judges are often undervalued—even by their peers on the bench. And, there is insufficient acknowledgement of the broad expertise required to do the job well. This publication aims to change this by drawing attention to the special knowledge, qualities, and skills that these judges need to be successful—and ho... MORE

10. Final Report on the Joint Project of the ACTL Task Force on Discovery and IAALS

    Publication

    This report includes a set of 29 proposed Principles that focus on four core areas: pleadings, discovery, experts and judicial management.

    It is the culmination of an 18-month collaboration between IAALS and the American College of Trial Lawyers (ACTL) Task Force on Discovery and provides recommendations that may one day underpin reform of the civil rules of procedure in both federal a... MORE