Trends In State Courts 2020

Trends in State Courts is an annual, peer-reviewed publication that highlights innovative practices in critical areas that are of interest to courts, and often serves as a guide for developing new initiatives and programs and supporting policy decisions. This year's Trends looks at leading during a pandemic, virtual remote interpreting, online dispute resolution, case management systems, new data systems for drug treatment courts, legal icons as a plain language tool, family justice initiative, the impact of labeling youth sexual offenders, parental alienation, divorces among senior citizens, state court collaboration across systems, what happens when a judge's personal opinion collides with the law, building trust, and racial justice.

Over the last 50 years family justice systems in the United States and elsewhere have evolved from a predominant adversarial approach focused on litigation to the significant integration of more collaborative, settlement-oriented approaches, especially mediation. In Family Dispute Resolution: Process and Practice some of the field's leading practitioners, researchers, teachers, and policymakers provide an overview of the modern family dispute resolution processes designed to help separating and divorcing parents make decisions about the future of their families. Chapters in this book address the growth of divorce mediation and other specialized processes including parenting coordination, arbitration, child-inclusive mediation, and online dispute resolution. They describe how to work with families experiencing issues including domestic violence, high conflict, substance misuse, and the lack of legal representation. Case management initiatives and special issues, including social science research and conflicting standards of practice, are also explored. Family Dispute Resolution provides a wide-ranging look at contemporary family dispute resolution processes and is essential reading for everyone interested in learning more about working with separating and divorcing families, including professionals, and law and graduate students.

The Routledge Companion to Gender and COVID-19 is the first comprehensive research guide for researchers and students who seek to study and evaluate the complex relationship between gender and COVID-19. This interdisciplinary collection touches on two major themes: first, how gender played a central role in shaping access to testing, treatment, and vaccines. Second, how the pandemic not only deepened existing gender inequalities, but also those along the lines of race, class, sexuality, disability, and immigration status. Bringing together a diverse range of international scholars across a number of disciplinary perspectives, this intersectional and comparative focus on COVID explores topics including the pandemic’s impact on families, employment, childcare and elder care, human rights, as well as gender and political economy and leadership, public health law, disability rights, and abortion access. The Routledge Companion to Gender and COVID-19 is an essential volume for scholars and students of Law, Gender Studies, Sociology, Health, Economics, and Politics.

Learn how to assist library patrons, including self-represented litigants, through legal research instruction, programming, and outreach. According to the National Center for State Courts, in 76 percent of civil cases in the United States at least one of the parties represents themself. As more people represent themselves in court, more are coming to the library to seek answers to legal questions. Do you ever feel panicked when someone asks you a legal reference question? Are you are not sure where to look for information or how much information you can provide? What can libraries do to assist self-represented litigants? Deborah Hamilton began her career as a law librarian with no formal legal training. Now, not only does she help people with legal reference questions, but she also provides legal programming and outreach to the community. Learn the difference between legal information and legal advice as well as how to connect with community groups who provide legal services. In this book, Hamilton teaches librarians how to teach themselves about legal research and resources, as well as offering practical ideas for types of legal programs and outreach that they can proactively offer patrons.

America is a nation founded on justice and the rule of law. But our laws are too complex, and legal advice too expensive, for poor and even middle-class Americans to get help and vindicate their rights. Criminal defendants facing jail time may receive an appointed lawyer who is juggling hundreds of cases and immediately urges them to plead guilty. Civil litigants are even worse off; usually, they get no help at all navigating the maze of technical procedures and rules. The same is true of those seeking legal advice, like planning a will or negotiating an employment contract. Rebooting Justice presents a novel response to longstanding problems. The answer is to use technology and procedural innovation to simplify and change the process itself. In the civil and criminal courts where ordinary Americans appear the most, we should streamline complex procedures and assume that parties will not have a lawyer, rather than the other way around. We need a cheaper, simpler, faster justice system to control costs. We cannot untie the Gordian knot by adding more strands of rope; we need to cut it, to simplify it.

In the more than 30 years since the drug court model transformed the criminal justice landscape, problem-solving courts have expanded their reach beyond criminogenic needs. They now address demographic similarities (e.g., veterans courts, tribal wellness courts, community courts) and offense characteristics (e.g., prostitution courts, sex offender courts). The rapid expansion of problem-solving courts to meet many different individuals suggests this template is appropriate and adaptable to just about any categorical characteristic. This book calls on problem-solving court experts to offer a fresh perspective on the evolving discourse on these courts' proliferation. Contributors describe diverse applications of the problem-solving court model while critically appraising these niche courts' evidence. This book provides a comprehensive account to date of how problem-solving courts are continuing to revolutionize justice. This collective body of work strengthens our understanding of their placement in the throes of a call for meaningful criminal justice reform.Taking Problem-Solving Courts to Scale is presented in three sections to address specialty courts focused on criminogenic needs, individual characteristics, and offense characteristics. At the outset of each section, the editors describe the courts' purpose falling under these broad categories and highlight key elements from the chapters falling within.

From the lingering but long-lasting effects of the COVID pandemic to the growing diffusion of partisan polarization through the various levels of government, the Ninth Edition of Governing States and Localities introduces students to the most recent challenges, developments, and political changes impacting state and local politics. Employing a comparative approach, bestselling authors Kevin B. Smith and Alan Greenblatt illustrate the similarities and differences in the way state and local governments operate to show students the real-world application of policy and politics. This edition keeps students engaged with a crisp journalistic style while providing a comprehensive introduction to state and local governments that is easily accessible to undergraduates in a variety of majors. This title is accompanied by a complete teaching and learning package. Contact your Sage representative to request a demo. Learning Platform / Courseware Sage Vantage is an intuitive learning platform that integrates quality Sage textbook content with assignable multimedia activities and auto-graded assessments to drive student engagement and ensure accountability. Unparalleled in its ease of use and built for dynamic teaching and learning, Vantage offers customizable LMS integration and best-in-class support. It’s a learning platform you, and your students, will actually love. Learn more. Assignable Video with Assessment Assignable video (available in Sage Vantage) is tied to learning objectives and curated exclusively for this text to bring concepts to life. Watch a sample video now. LMS Cartridge: Import this title’s instructor resources into your school’s learning management system (LMS) and save time. Don’t use an LMS? You can still access all of the same online resources for this title via the password-protected Instructor Resource Site. Learn more.

Buy a new version of this textbook and receive access to the Connected eBook with Study Center on CasebookConnect, including: lifetime access to the online ebook with highlight, annotation, and search capabilities; practice questions from your favorite study aids; an outline tool and other helpful resources. Connected eBooks provide what you need most to be successful in your law school classes. This casebook covers all topics in the first-year canon of civil procedure, and some topics in advanced litigation classes (e.g., class actions, appeals). It is organized with the reality and complexities of civil litigation in mind, and follows the litigation sequence, from pleading through preclusion. Each chapter takes a practical as well as analytical approach, through (a) a series of Supreme Court and lower court opinions, (b) notes preceding and following those opinions intended to explain the underlying doctrines and principles behind them, and (c) problems intended to assess and refine students' understanding of doctrines and their rationales. Ultimately, this casebook demands that students read carefully and at a detailed level, analyze critically, and apply the law from the perspective of the theories underlying the various doctrines. It provides an effective vehicle through which to teach legal analysis and to gently nudge students forward and deeper into the materials. New to the 6th Edition: The 6th edition has been streamlined--about 13% shorter It includes: An introductory overview of the litigation process Relevant Supreme Court decisions up through the close of the October 2021 Term Updated lower court opinions New and revised Problems Benefits for instructors and students: The inclusion of over 200 problems, including detailed review problems at the end of each chapter Progressive coverage of doctrine that takes the students from the basics to a more sophisticated appreciation of the principles and the theories An organization that is designed to promote learning and a full appreciation of the law of procedure Annual statutory and case supplement A demanding and analytical approach to the first-year procedure canon