Legislators in 2018 introduced a slew of bills trying to bring more collaboration and modest adjustments to the Department of Child Services. Lawmakers this year have introduced at least 25 bills impacting CHINS, foster parents and DCS caseloads, among other things.
No one denies that Aaron Isby-Israel made bad, even criminal, choices that landed him in the Indiana Department of Correction. What is disputed is whether Isby should have remained in solitary confinement for a total of 28 years.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed the Trump administration to go ahead with its plan to restrict military service by transgender people while court challenges continue. The high court split 5-4 in allowing the plan to take effect, with the court’s five conservatives greenlighting it and its four liberal members saying they would not have.
Students and faculty from Notre Dame Law School and local immigration advocates volunteered over the holidays with the Dilley Pro Bono Project in Texas, which helps women and their children seeking asylum in the United States.
After sexual misconduct and harassment allegations were leveled at Attorney General Curtis Hill and House Speaker Brian Bosma, harassment-related legislation is again being considered by the General Assembly, this year taking specific aim at accused elected officials.
With a theme of “Addressing the Needs of our Customers,” Indiana courts plan to emphasize quality customer service in 2019, Chief Justice Loretta Rush said in her State of the Judiciary address.
The full Indiana Senate on Tuesday will consider legislation that would waive Hoosier children as young as 12 into adult court if they are charged with attempted murder.
The Obama-era program that shields young immigrants from deportation and that President Donald Trump has sought to end seems likely to survive for at least another year. That’s because the Supreme Court took no action Friday on the Trump administration’s request to decide by early summer whether Trump’s bid to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program was legal.
A long-running dispute over wiretapping within an Indiana police department will continue and could go to trial after city officials rejected a proposed agreement with officers who want to block the tapes’ release. The South Bend Common Council last week unanimously voted to reject any settlement agreement that may have been reached in mediation.
The founder of a drug recovery home for women in southern Indiana has been released from prison just weeks after the state’s high court revised her original 30-year drug-related sentence. Lisa Livingston was released Wednesday from Rockville Correctional Facility after serving nine months.
The parents of a 4-month-old boy who are facing neglect charges after the child died last February of heroin intoxication in Madison County have turned themselves in to authorities. The Madison County Prosecutor’s Office this month charged 28-year-old Daniel E. Jones and 29-year-old Tiffany McNutt of Alexandria with felony neglect of a dependent.
A Lake County sports bar lost its appeal against a patron suing for personal injury when the Indiana Court of Appeals found it was foreseeable to the bar that one of its drunk patron’s was looking for a fight.
With the federal government shutdown coming to the end of its fourth week, the American Bar Association is offering free continuing legal education programs to attorneys and others impacted as a result. Titled “ABA Cares 2019,” the national association is offering five free CLE programs to all lawyers and other professionals affected by the shutdown.
A Plainfield attorney has been suspended for at least 180 days with two years of probation monitored by the Judges and Lawyers Assistance Program after he accepted retainers from several clients but failed to adequately communicate with or appropriately advance their cases.
The Supreme Court appeared ready Wednesday to strike down a Tennessee provision that requires people to live in the state for two years before obtaining a license to sell alcohol. But 35 states, including Indiana, and the District of Columbia, are urging the court to uphold the two-year residency requirement.
A nonprofit group that had been denied a state license to open a South Bend abortion clinic reapplied for one Thursday instead of challenging the decision in court. Texas-based Whole Woman’s Health Alliance reapplied for the license Thursday, avoiding what it feared would be a lengthy legal battle.
A man who murdered a woman in order to rob her of prescription drugs lost an appeal of his convictions when the Indiana Court of Appeals found there was sufficient evidence and that a trial court did not deprive him of a defense.
The Indiana Court of Appeals found a trial court’s decision to approve an estate administrator’s final account was not clearly erroneous. Instead, it noted that a woman appealing the order acted in procedural bad faith, and thus ordered her to pay appellate attorney fees.
The Scott Circuit judge will return to the bench after his monthlong stretch of temporarily being unable to perform his duties.
A former government employee in northwestern Indiana has been convicted in a scheme to use funds from the City of Gary to buy more than 1,000 pieces of computer equipment that she then resold.