An ABA task force that spent three years examining problems in plea bargaining has released recommendations that judges, lawyers, lawmakers and other stakeholders can follow to create a fairer, more transparent process.
Lawyers are abuzz about the possible uses of ChatGPT. Could the artificial intelligence-powered chatbot write a persuasive legal brief worthy of judicial consideration? The ABA Journal decided to put the technology to the test just for kicks.
The Oklahoma Supreme Court has ruled that a restaurant in Weatherford, Oklahoma, was not liable for the death of a patron in a lawsuit claiming that he was served 12 beers and five tequila shots before getting behind the wheel of his car in an attempt to collect on a bet.
When Holly Cook joined the ABA in January 2012, she brought with her more than two decades of experience in the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General’s Corps. “I thought I was going to Afghanistan and deploying yet again. But I got a phone call one day saying they were looking for someone to come to the Governmental Affairs Office,” Cook says. “I loved working with the Hill. So I thought, ‘All right.’”
It was just weeks before lockdown in early March 2020 when the ABA held its last all in-person ABA Techshow. Three years later, legal tech enthusiasts and lawyers can expect the 2023 edition to meet pent-up demand for face-to-face panels and meetings.
The council of the ABA’s Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar on Friday voted in favor of resubmitting to the House of Delegates a proposal to eliminate a requirement that accredited law schools use an admissions test like the LSAT or GRE. Additionally, the council approved a suggestion to allow up to 50% of a law school’s credits offered online, without special permission.
Many courts in the United States are “overburdened and under-resourced,” according to a study released Thursday by the Thomson Reuters Institute. Delays in court hearings have become a significant problem at the state, county and municipal levels.
Updated: A federal judge on Wednesday dismissed a claim brought by Jason Kilborn, the University of Illinois Chicago School of Law professor who used abbreviated racial and gender slurs in a 2020 essay exam question, that he had been unfairly retaliated against for engaging in protected speech. However, the court also allowed some of his defamation claims to go forward.
A U.S. Supreme Court decision “jettisoning” the protections of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act “would threaten the internet’s core functions,” Google says in a brief.
A federal judge in Manhattan, New York City, has ruled against former President Donald Trump after he belatedly offered to provide a DNA sample in a suit filed by a woman who accused him of sexual assault, in exchange for missing pages of a forensic analysis of the dress that his accuser says she wore on the day in question.
