Will remote hearings improve appearance rates?

National Center for State Courts: "The coronavirus pandemic has brought misery, if not inconvenience, to the vast majority of the nation, but it has also brought some silver linings. When it comes to state courts, officials say the pandemic has forced courts to become more nimble, particularly in their ability to conduct remote hearings."

Hackers target Texas courts in ransomware attack

Courthouse News Service: "Websites for the Texas Supreme Court and the state’s appellate courts remained mostly shuttered Monday after a cyberattack last week, according to the court system’s administrator."

Appeals court finds constitutional right to literacy for schoolchildren in Detroit case

Detroit Free Press: "A federal appeals court ruled Thursday that the U.S. Constitution includes a right to 'a basic minimum education,' which lawyers claim the state of Michigan denied to a group of Detroit Public School students."

Utah becomes first state to let law grads skip bar exam amid COVID-19

Law.com: "Utah has officially become the first jurisdiction to allow aspiring lawyers to bypass the bar exam and become licensed amid the COVID-19 pandemic."

Majority of state supreme courts stream arguments

Broadcasting & Cable News: "Thirty-three out of 50 top state courts agree, virtual arguments are the way to keep the gavel's banging in the age of COVID-19."

New law school graduates face strong headwinds

Courthouse News Service: "Standing at the pinnacle of their academic careers, spring 2020 law school graduates are staring at a profession battered by winds of pestilence. And the dragon they’ve been preparing to slay, the state bar exam, is slipping out of range."

When court moves online, do dress codes still matter?

New York Times: "Justice is supposed to be blind. But in courtrooms, decorum matters."

Justice Dept. watchdog to inspect prisons amid virus spread

Associated Press: "The Justice Department’s inspector general will conduct remote inspections of Bureau of Prisons facilities to ensure they are following best practices to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus after hundreds of federal inmates tested positive for the virus."

Courts rapidly adopting videoconferencing tech to conduct business

Washington Times: "The Zoom videoconferencing platform is fast becoming the judiciary’s technology of choice to conduct business while following social distancing requirements for the coronavirus pandemic."

Coronavirus threatens to flood courts with contract disputes

Bloomberg News: "The coronavirus pandemic has left companies across an array of industries wondering what to do if they can’t perform the services they are contractually obligated to provide."

In the 1700s an enslaved Massachusetts woman sued for her freedom - and won

NPR News: "Nearly 250 years ago, a group of white men gathered in a house in Massachusetts to draft a document on independence aimed at the British crown. A woman who was enslaved in the house overheard the discussion and determined that the words applied to her, too."

Federal report says women in prison receive harsher punishments than men

MPR News: "Women in prison, when compared with incarcerated men, often receive disproportionately harsh punishments for minor violations of prison rules, according to a report released Wednesday by a federal fact-finding agency."

Who should decide what books are allowed in prison?

MPR News: "Michael Tafolla says the books he read in prison helped him understand how he had landed there in the first place. He remembers one especially eye-opening title: Illegal: Reflections of an Undocumented Immigrant."

U.S.: Forty years ago, they changed how hate groups are sued

Courthouse News Service: "Opal Jackson still carries the shotgun pellets in her leg. On the night of April 19, 1980, a group of three Klansmen went on a shooting spree in a black neighborhood of Chattanooga."

Law Library of Congress to offer legal research webinar Feb. 20

The Law Library of Congress will be offering a free webinar on researching U.S. case law on Thursday, Feb. 20.

High percentage of grads pass bar within 2 years, ABA says

Bloomberg Law: "Almost 90% of graduates of accredited law schools passed a bar exam within two years of graduation, the American Bar Association said in a new report."

Wyoming’s first female supreme court justice paved the way for others

Casper Star Tribune: "Marilyn Kite was living in Jackson, working as an attorney and raising her son when she got the call. Justice Richard Macy was retiring. The Wyoming Supreme Court would have an opening. Would she consider it?"

How quickly should courts change the law? Florida tests the limit

Christian Science Monitor: "When the Florida Supreme Court ruled late last month that a unanimous jury is not required for the state to hand down a death sentence, the decision reverberated in the state prisons that house hundreds of felons already sentenced to death."

For the first time, flagship law journals at top U.S. law schools are all led by women

Washington Post: "Only one woman worked on the staff of the Harvard Law Review when Ruth Bader Ginsburg arrived on campus in 1956. It would be another two decades before a woman was elected to lead the school’s prestigious legal journal."

Alaska lawyer blends life and law as a tribal court judge and an Orthodox Jew

ABA Journal: "How does a Jewish kid from Philly become a tribal court judge in Alaska? Just ask Judge David Avraham Voluck."

Canada: B.C.'s oldest practising lawyer just turned 100 and isn't retiring yet

CBC News: "It takes a lot to slow down Constance Isherwood, British Columbia's oldest practising lawyer. She took only a few days off work after the city of Victoria was hit with a snowstorm last week that forced schools and businesses to close."

Banished native women fight tribal leaders in federal court

NPR News: "Four women from the nation's second largest Indian reservation have turned to the federal court system after they were banished by tribal leadership last year."

Writing a will that says something about who you are - not what you have

MPR News: "When we talk about wills, we often talk of money, of assets and valuables. But there's growing interest in wills that pass down lessons learned, guidance for a life well-lived — a legacy."