Getting legal resources to low-income litigants is a major struggle both nationally and on Hoosier soil. According to the Legal Services Corporation 2022 Justice Gap Report, low-income Americans do not get any or enough legal help for 92% of their substantial civil legal problems.
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A pair of complaints filed in 2021 by Pendleton Correctional Facility inmate Danny Johnson is showing the lawsuits can add to the frustration and sadness felt by the families who have relatives behind bars.
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With an ultimate goal of improving access to justice in family law cases, the Family Law Taskforce of the Indiana Supreme Court’s Innovation Initiative nailed down more than a dozen recommendations, with five being considered “essential for reform.” Now, that final report is headed to the Indiana justices.
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A pilot partnership between Indiana Legal Services and a Tippecanoe County court is providing in-court assistance to pro se litigants in divorce cases. Attorneys sit down with litigants behind closed doors, gather the necessary child-support information, fill out the paperwork and send parents back into the courtroom.
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Having watched people become intimidated and fearful as they try to represent themselves in court while struggling to understand legal system, Leigh Carpenter jumped at the chance to join what she sees as providing much-needed help.
Utah is one of just four states that allow nonlawyers to obtain limited licenses to provide legal advice and counsel.
A man facing a death penalty charge in the fatal shooting of an Indiana police officer has asked a judge to represent himself, and his appointed attorney wants to withdraw from the case.
At the Lawrence Township trustee’s office Tuesday afternoon, court officials and community leaders unveiled the first of 120 civil legal help kiosks that will be deployed to individuals trying to navigate the legal system themselves.
The Historical Society of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana’s is hosting a CLE event this week focused on federal criminal defense of indigent litigants.
A divided American Bar Association Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility released a formal opinion Wednesday seeking to clarify the interpretation of a model rule about self-represented lawyers’ communications with represented parties in a case.
Virtual hearings have been touted as providing easier access to the courts for low-income and self-represented litigants. But in a recent study, The Pew Charitable Trusts concluded the online judicial system is still designed for lawyers, and those parties without attorneys continue to be at a disadvantage.
Indiana University Maurer School of Law professor is leading a study that takes a closer look at how the technology that made virtual hearings possible is helping — and hindering — pro se parties.
Nearly 20 years’ worth of data tracking trends of federal civil pro se filings show that civil rights cases make up the second-highest percentage of filings, next to pro se prisoner cases. In recent years, a growing number of those cases have targeted law enforcement or other government actors.
Indiana attorneys interested in joining the pool of volunteers at the Southern Indiana District Court are invited to attend a one-hour training session in October to learn more about representing indigent litigants as part of the court’s recruited counsel program.
A Boone County murder defendant convicted and sentenced to life without parole failed to convince a majority of the Indiana Supreme Court that the trial court improperly denied his request to proceed pro se. The majority provided an analysis for considering pro se requests in capital and LWOP sentences, but minority justices raised concerns about the majority “till(ing) new constitutional soil.”
A woman whose request for appointed counsel was denied will receive a new trial on her misdemeanor marijuana conviction after the Indiana Court of Appeals determined her constitutional right to counsel was violated.
The Indiana Supreme Court on Tuesday summarily affirmed a Court of Appeals decision remanding an improper sentence imposed in a drug case but rejected a convict’s argument that he was wrongly denied his request for a speedy trial.
The Indiana Supreme Court has cleared a well-known attorney and former federal prosecutor of misconduct charges stemming from a nearly decade-old matter. The court found Thursday “that the allegations of misconduct were not proven” in a one-page judgment in favor of Barnes & Thornburg partner Larry Mackey.
Peter Prostyakov, a native of Moscow who’s now a U.S. Citizen living in Carmel, details what he concedes is his convoluted journey into the federal judicial system, where he believes courts act unfairly toward him and other self-represented litigants.
It is ironic that the highest court in our land, charged with ensuring that the rules and laws of the country are fair and legal, is itself guilty of enacting a most unfair and arguably unlawful rule explicitly forbidding unrepresented litigants from participating in the Supreme Court oral argument process.
A new study from the Pew Charitable Trusts highlights a dramatic rise in debt collection lawsuits, but even as one in four cases on civil court dockets are seeking payment for past-due bills, consumers increasingly are absent from the proceedings.
A man was formally charged with murder Tuesday in the slaying of an Indianapolis police officer who authorities said was shot through an apartment’s door while responding with other officers to a domestic violence call.
A prisoner’s case has been reinstated after the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals found the Indiana Northern District Court’s denial of his three requests for appointed counsel prejudiced him.
Lawyers who volunteered to handle pro se cases brought by inmates last year took the time Thursday to attend a special thank you event hosted by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana.