New Protocols Aim to Streamline Discovery in COVID Business-Interruption Lawsuits
An organization that advocates for a more efficient U.S. justice system has released a set of protocols that aims to guide discovery and speed resolution of litigation arising from business-interruption claims related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System developed the protocols in only six months, with members of a committee of defense and plaintiff attorneys holding a series of monthly virtual meetings to develop the document, said IAALS Senior Director Brittany Kauffman. She said the committee announced the effort last May because of the unprecedented number of lawsuits filed in both state and federal courts in all 50 states.
ABA launches initiative to help measure effectiveness of regulatory reforms
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The ABA Center for Innovation has launched an initiative focused on developing uniform metrics that states could use to measure the effectiveness of new approaches they are taking to regulating the legal industry.
The center’s project comes as states such as Utah and Arizona have in recent months approved opening up their legal marketplaces to alternative business structures featuring nonlawyer owners and investors.
Officials involved with the ABA’s metrics initiative say a primary goal is assisting jurisdictions with determining whether their regulatory reforms are achieving the desired outcomes, such as increased access to justice for members of the public. States collecting the same type of data would also allow for comparisons between different regulatory approaches, they argue.
Will paper bar exams become a thing of the past?
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While there’s significant disagreement on how the bar exam should change, many believe it will, and there’s a wide range of ideas about what should happen.
So far, suggestions for change include breaking the test into smaller segments and administering part of it in law school; replacing essay questions with performance tests; and doing away with the licensing exam entirely.
The question of how the bar exam could improve was discussed before the COVID-19 pandemic, but safety concerns around in-person testing for what would normally have been a July administration drew more attention to the issue.
Former Washington state bar leader remembered as a champion for legal innovation
Paula Littlewood.
Paula Littlewood, a champion for legal industry innovation who led the Washington State Bar Association for more than a decade, died of cancer Monday.
The 55-year-old mother of two was also closely involved with the ABA, having served on the ABA’s Commission on the Future of Legal Services from 2014 to 2016 and the ABA’s Task Force on the Future of Legal Education that issued a final report in 2014.
Littlewood became the Washington State Bar’s executive director in 2007 and was best known for her work in implementing the Limited License Legal Technicians initiative, approved by the state supreme court in 2012. The nonlawyer limited licensees, known as LLLTs, were permitted to handle some legal tasks within family law.