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State bar offers 4-day work week

To help with rising gas prices, the Indiana State Bar Association is offering its employees the option of working just four days a week, although the office will remain open five days a week.About half of the bar association’s 18 employees have taken advantage of the change, allowing them to work four extended days instead of five days with typical business hours. The bar association offices remain open Monday through Friday, and employees stagger their work schedules so the office is…

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St. Joseph Bar releases judicial evaluation

St. Joseph County Bar Association members have evaluated the five St. Joseph Superior judges up for retention this year – Judges Roland W. Chamblee Jr., David C. Chapleau, Jerome Frese, Jenny Pitts Manier, John M. Marnocha, Jane Woodward Miller, and Michael P. Scopelitis. All of the judges received a combined average score of either average/acceptable or above average.

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Election choices fade for Marion Superior Court

Three unslated contenders for Marion Superior judgeships have withdrawn their names from the May primary ballot, including two sitting judges who between them have almost a half-century of judicial experience.By the noon deadline on Feb. 25, incumbent Marion Superior Judges Kenneth H. Johnson and Gary L. Miller withdrew their names after filing their candidacies late last week. Both were overlooked at the county Republican Party’s slating convention Feb. 16.Indianapolis attorney Angela Dow Davis, who’d filed to run against the Democrats’ slate also chosen…

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Pro bono services conclave April 25

The deadline to RSVP for the conclave on the delivery of pro bono services in Indiana has been extended through Monday, April 14. A subcommittee of the Indiana State Bar Association’s Pro Bono Committee has organized the all-day event from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. April 25 at Barnes & Thornburg Conference Center, 11 S. Meridian St., Indianapolis. Event organizers extended the deadline to RSVP after realizing some people were on spring break this week. The event will feature education and…

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Judge, attorneys to get national, state awards

A judge and two attorneys from Indiana will receive awards for their work in the legal community and media law.Dearborn Superior Judge G. Michael Witte will receive the Franklin N. Flaschner Award given by the National Conference on Specialized Court Judges Aug. 7 at the American Bar Association’s annual meeting. The award recognizes a judge in a court of limited jurisdiction who has an excellent reputation, commitment to high ideals, and exemplary character, leadership, and competence in performing legal duties. Judge…

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Bar wants merit-based selection extended

The Lake County Bar Association will send a delegation to Friday's Commission on Courts meeting to endorse the adoption of legislation that would support merit-based selection of judges to the County Courts Division.

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ISBA adds 3 new memberships

The Indiana State Bar Association has approved three new membership categories, describing the recent additions as a way to have the entire legal community represented within its membership ranks.On June 30, the Board of Governors added the categories of law librarians, legal administrators, and court administrators as affiliate members. They join the paralegal class in that ranking, meaning the four professional groups can serve on committees or join sections, but they cannot vote on issues or hold office.”This is a natural…

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Death penalty fairness discussed Sept. 26

Evaluating fairness and accuracy in state death penalty systems will be the topic of discussion on Sept. 26 at noon at Baker & Daniels, 300 N. Meridian St., Suite 2700, Indianapolis. The Indianapolis Lawyer Chapter of the American Constitution Society will sponsor the talk, which is free and participants are welcome to bring a brown bag lunch. Drinks will be provided.The featured speakers are co-authors of “The Indiana Death Penalty Assessment Report” Joel Schumm and Paula Sites. Schumm is clinical associate…

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September conference focuses on courts-Congress relationship

Attorneys are already coveting a spot at a September conference on the relationship between Congress and the courts, which will include an appearance by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. and multiple other well-known jurists and public officials.However, registration doesn’t begin until Thursday.Limited to the first 150, the Sept. 14 conference titled “Relations between Congress and the Federal Courts” is sponsored by the Indiana State Bar Association. Justice Alito will be the keynote speaker; joining him will the chief…

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Justice Alito headlines conference

Relations between courts and Congress have been strained lately, and a contingent of both are meeting in Indianapolis today to explore the reasons, examine how judicial independence fits in, and try to lay groundwork for improving relations.The Indiana State Bar Association is sponsoring the “Relations Between Congress and the Federal Courts” conference at the Indiana University School of Law – Indianapolis, which began at 8:30 a.m. and features U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. as a key speaker.More than…

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Marion County still battling juror no-shows

Half of jurors called to serve in Marion County are failing to appear.Local judges are talking about it and changing policy to give no-show jurors a second chance to show up if they’ve ignored one summons, and from there implementing potential penalties ranging from fees to community service.Improvements have come since Indiana altered its jury pool list last year to include more than voter-registration records full of outdated addresses, but about 52 percent failed to show up on assigned days, court…

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Allen County hosts historic documents

Historic documents in American history are on display this week at the Allen County Courthouse. The original documents, which include the Articles of Confederation, the Lincoln/Douglas debates, and the Habeas Corpus Act, were brought to the courthouse this week in conjunction with the annual conference of state judiciary. The documents are on display in the rotunda of the courthouse, which is a spectacular place to have the works, said Court of Appeals Judge Paul Mathias, who helped to bring the documents…

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Committee ready to explore new home for ISBA, ICLEF, IBF

A committee of 10 people is now tasked with finding a new, common home for three pillar organizations of the Indiana legal community.The mission is to find a single facility that the Indiana State Bar Association, Indiana Continuing Legal Education Foundation, and the Indiana Bar Foundation can share.Prior to 2003, all three shared a roof. But the ISBA moved to the fifth floor of One Indiana Square to be on its own, leaving ICLEF and the IBF at 230 E. Ohio…

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Lawyer takes on role with National Bar

A Barnes & Thornburg attorney who is president of the Marion County Bar Association is taking on a new role with a national legal organization.Jimmie McMillian has been appointed to a one-year term as deputy chief of staff for the National Bar Association, which represents more than 22,000 minority attorneys, judges, legal scholars, and law students throughout the world.McMillian will assist incoming NBA president Vanita Banks with her duties and will also help develop and implement plans to achieve her goals….

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LCBA members speak out about court system in survey

The Lake County Bar Association has released the unofficial survey results from its April 13 Bench and Bar Conference. The results, available as a PDF file, are available on the LCBA’s Web site, www.lakecountybar.com or http://www.lakecountybar.com/Survey_Results1_unofficial.pdf. The survey asked 124 respondents if city and town courts should be abolished and replaced with a lesser number of full-time Superior Courts to perform the same functions (no: 91 votes; yes: 35 votes); whether any Superior or Circuit courts should relocate to other…

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Project PEACE training postponed; no new date announced

 This summer’s training for Project PEACE – Peaceful Endings through Attorneys, Children, and Education – originally scheduled for July 16-18, has been canceled because of a lack of registrations from teachers. An extended deadline failed to draw any more registrations. The training might be rescheduled for sometime after the start of the 2007-08 school year. Project PEACE is a peer mediation program implemented by the Indiana Department of Education with support from the Indiana State Bar Association and the Indiana Attorney…

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ISBA awards money for former attorney’s actions

A South Bend man is receiving $15,000 from the Indiana State Bar Association to compensate for losses he suffered from the dishonest acts of a former attorney.Darious E. Easton received the money as a result of actions by former attorney Paul Bruno Kusbach, who resigned in 2002. Kusbach was sentenced in April 2004 to federal prison for four years and nine months for stealing money from clients; he was ordered to pay $1.2 million in restitution to 26 separate clients.This was…

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Court’s juvenile division launches modest means program

A new modest means program has been launched for the Marion Superior Court ;s juvenile division to help families who might not otherwise be able to afford legal representation in CHINS cases.Set up by the Indianapolis Bar Association and juvenile court earlier this year, this program is by court referral only and aimed at supporting families whose income disqualifies them for low and no-cost legal representation from the Marion County Public Defender ;s Office and other legal-assistance programs.Juvenile court officials will…

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Court orders damages to Lake County in bail bond case

The Indiana Court of Appeals has remanded a bail bond case it considers filed in bad faith, with instructions that the trial court judge calculate damages for the Lake County sheriff, Superior Court Clerk, and the Criminal Justice Section of the Lake County Bar Association.In Smith and Zacek v. Lake County, et al., the appellate court ruled today that the two bail bondsmen filed a complaint in 1999 alleging that bail statutes included in the Indiana Code were unconstitutional under the…

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