Chief Judge Juan R. Sánchez of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania will be the keynote speaker at the fifth annual Hispanic Heritage Month Celebration hosted by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana and the Indiana State Bar Association Latino Affairs Committee.
Topics including appointed counsel at initial hearings and juvenile justice issues are on the agenda for this fall’s meetings of the Interim Study Committee on Corrections and Criminal Code.
Past and present female judges from across the state will gather this month at an Indiana State Bar Association event to reflect on the history and significance of the 19th Amendment.
In June, Florida became the most recent to join a growing list of states moving to cast aside long-held resistance and beginning to open the door to — if not completely welcome —nonlawyers co-owning legal practices. But Indiana is not yet following suit.
Indiana’s three law school deans will be joining the Indiana State Bar Association’s continuing webinar series about race on Thursday, offering their perspectives and insights into issues related to education.
The structure of judicial selection in Lake and St. Joseph counties will soon change now that Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb has signed controversial legislation changing the composition of the judicial selection panels in the northern Indiana counties.
A parade of attorneys from Lake and St. Joe counties testified against House Bill 1453. Most spoke in disbelief that this was happening without any prior consideration. They explained why they had taken their time and traveled all the way down to Indianapolis, some twice, to tell lawmakers why this is a bad idea and why the current judicial nominating system works. It was enough to give any reasonable person pause. But this is the Indiana Legislature we’re talking about.
The Indiana State Bar Association rolled out a long-awaited health plan that bar association leaders believe will provide an affordable alternative, especially to small- and medium-size firms across the state.
After years of conversations and one scuttled attempt, the Indiana State Bar Association has unveiled a health insurance plan available to law firms around the state. But the coverage is not comprehensive, with solo practitioners being ineligible to participate.
A bill that would change how superior court judges are nominated in Lake and St. Joseph counties was uniformly opposed by lawyers and judges from those counties in a Senate hearing Wednesday but narrowly advanced on a 5-4 vote.
Legislation that has drawn fire from bar associations and members of the legal community who say proposed changes to judicial appointments would politicize the trial court benches in Lake and St. Joseph counties will be heard Wednesday by a Senate committee.
Your publication recently printed an article discussing the Indiana State Bar Association’s objections to Indiana Senate Joint Resolution 16. The bar association’s complaint about SJR 16, and the slant of the article, is that the resolution proposes to “strip” Hoosier voters of the power to retain Indiana appellate court judges and Supreme Court justices. I do not believe that complaint is well-founded.
The Lake County Bar Association on Thursday issued the most damning rebuke to date of a bill in the Indiana General Assembly that would alter how judges in that county and St. Joseph County are selected. The northwest Indiana county’s bar called the bill “an abomination” and “a political power play by parties not even within Lake County to take even more power away from the people of Lake County in selecting their judges.”
For the second time this year, the Indiana State Bar Association is publicly opposing legislation targeting judicial selection in Indiana, this time speaking against a bill that it says would “unnecessarily change a working system” for judicial selection in Lake and St. Joseph counties.
The Indiana Supreme Court on Monday issued an order appointing Miller, now a senior judge, back to the court she attempted to retire from last year. The order authorizes Miller to serve as a St. Joseph Superior Court judge until May 1 as a fight over her potential successor plays out in another court.
By initiating a constitutional amendment based on misinformation, three Indiana Republican state senators, now joined by multiple others, have proposed a radical resolution to eliminate citizen involvement in the retention vote of appellate judges, changing the current selection process that has been in place for 50 years. This proposal also severely decreases judicial independence and increases the political pressure on our state’s appellate judiciary. Indeed, if successful, the proposal would give the legislative branch far greater control over the Indiana state appellate judges and justices. It would also further embed in Indiana’s Constitution more systemic racism.
Thee debate in legal writing circles rages: Are contractions acceptable?
Efforts to amend a bill that would fundamentally change the composition of the judicial nominating commissions in Lake and St. Joseph counties failed in the Indiana House on Tuesday, setting up the controversial legislation for a possible final House vote next week.
To capitalize on the talks that started during 2020, attorney Angka Hinshaw is joining Indiana Justice Steven David to lead a yearlong discussion about racial issues and cultural differences. The goal of the program, Open Conversations, is to foster honest, perhaps uncomfortable, dialogue where the participants can gain new insight and understanding.
Legal professionals in Lake and St. Joseph counties are raising serious concerns about advancing legislation that would change the structure of the local judicial nominating commissions that shape the state trial court judiciary in the northern Indiana counties.