Articles

Year in Review: Baer death penalty reversal most-read IL story of 2019

A federal appeals court’s reversal of Madison County killer Fredrick Baer’s death sentence was the most-read story on the Indiana Lawyer’s digital edition, www.theindianalawyer.com. Indiana Lawyer readers clicked on stories on our website more than 2.6 million times between Jan. 1 and Dec. 10, 2019, according to Google Analytics. Here are the 50 most-viewed story headlines during that time.

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Champions of legal aid, civics education honored

Reflecting his engineering roots, J. Mark Robinson offers a straightforward solution for the civil legal puzzle: real lawyers in real courtrooms representing real people on real legal issues. The Indiana legal profession recognized Robinson and his commitment by honoring him with the Randall T. Shepard Award for Excellence in Pro Bono. Robinson and other select members of the legal profession and educators were honored for their work in either civil legal aid or civic education at the Indiana Bar Foundation’s 2019 Awards Dinner.

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Shepard and Vaidik: Time for reform in the Indiana Bar Exam

The change we recommend would empower us with the best testing procedures that modern testing has been able to create — fairer and more reliable, and formulated by lawyers, judges and law teachers in collaboration with testing experts. It would also help us assure that the Indiana examination doesn’t work to create adverse results for minority applicants.

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Panel recommends adopting Uniform Bar Exam to enhance fairness, reliability

With Indiana already incorporating two components from the Uniform Bar Examination into its own attorney admittance test, a study commission formed to review and recommend changes to state’s bar exam is advocating Indiana pick up the remaining component and transition completely to the UBE. But three commission members cautioned against the move, saying the state would be relinquishing control of its own test.

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Justices agree to hear extended expungement-wait case

Indiana Supreme Court justices have agreed to hear a case that sharply divided an appellate panel concerning whether minor felonies reduced to misdemeanor convictions should trigger new five-year waiting periods for individuals seeking a criminal expungement.

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McConnell not ruling out witnesses in impeachment trial

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Monday that he was not ruling out calling witnesses in President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial — but indicated he was in no hurry to seek new testimony either — as lawmakers remain at an impasse over the form of the trial by the GOP-controlled Senate.

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Appellate court: Minor not ‘Indian child’ under ICWA

A father who argued his daughter was an Indian child under federal law during a termination of parental rights battle lost his appeal of the termination Monday, when the Indiana Court of Appeals upheld a ruling finding that the child’s tribe was not registered with the United States government.

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