Tag Archives: Legal Reform

STFU? Does Judicial Blogging Harm The Legal System?

Posted on July 10, 2014 by The Legal Reformer

Senior U.S. District Court Judge Richard Kopf and author of the blog, Hercules and the Umpire, recently made national headlines for his post titled, Remembering Alexander Bickel’s passive virtues and the Hobby Lobby cases.  In the post, Judge Kopf addressed the political … Continue reading →

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If All Lawyers Spent Time As Clients . . . Maybe The System Would Be Better

Posted on June 20, 2014 by The Legal Reformer

We stumbled on an article about a doctor’s eye-opening experience spending time as a patient, and it got us thinking: what if all lawyers spent time as clients?  Perhaps the best way to see how the system affects those who … Continue reading →

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Legal Reform Needs More Than Law Firm Innovation

Posted on June 14, 2014 by The Legal Reformer

In 2009, a virtual law firm named Clearspire emerged onto the legal scene with the plan to provide clients an alternative to BigLaw.  Clearspire touted high-end attorneys at lower hourly rates by eliminating physical law offices and partner profits, and … Continue reading →

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“When Judges Err”

Posted on June 7, 2014 by The Legal Reformer

When judges realize their written opinion contains a mistake, should they publicly acknowledge the mistake and the correction?  U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit Judge Andrew D. Hurwitz answered that question in the affirmative in his recent essay for the … Continue reading →

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Can Visual Law Services Lower Fees?

Posted on May 16, 2014 by The Legal Reformer

Legal research can be a time-consuming and thus expensive part of a legal matter. When one brings a legal matter to an attorney, often the attorney will need to research the relevant law, which can be evolving or changing, and can influence … Continue reading →

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It’s Not Just The Lawyers And Judges . . .

Posted on May 3, 2014 by The Legal Reformer

When we blog about the legal system needing reform, we tend to focus on issues involving lawyers and judges, but the whole system needs reform.  Illustrating this is the revocation of a New Jersey psychologist’s license after being found to have influenced … Continue reading →

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Can Judges Reduce Litigation Costs?

Posted on April 26, 2014 by The Legal Reformer

It’s a familiar scenario – a lawsuit on the evening of trial suddenly settles after years of litigation and seemingly innumerable dollars spent preparing the case.  Most clients wonder whether anything could have been done along the way to settle the case earlier … Continue reading →

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One Judge’s Take on “The Secret Life of Judges” and Judicial Bias

Posted on April 18, 2014 by The Legal Reformer

In 2006, former Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, Dennis Jacobs delivered a lecture at Fordham Law School titled “The Secret Life of Judges.”  In his lecture, Judge Jacobs described “the judicial mentality,” as “a habit … Continue reading →

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“Is Your Lawyer’s Bill Too High?”

Posted on April 12, 2014 by The Legal Reformer

We have written about HALT.org (Help Abolish Legal Tyranny) in previous posts and its work for transparency in attorney discipline and reporting on state bar associations’ secrecy in the handling of attorney ethics complaints.  HALT also has a number of self-help brochures … Continue reading →

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Council for Court Excellence – A Great Resource for Legal Consumers

Posted on February 28, 2014 by The Legal Reformer

The Council for Court Excellence (CCE), the “moving force” behind the “one day/one trial” jury duty system in the D.C. Superior Court, is a nonprofit organization formed in 1982, that “works to improve the administration of justice in the Washington metropolitan … Continue reading →

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