The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals has decided that independent state organization Indiana Protection and Advocacy Services
has the right to sue a state government agency about the practices and programs regarding mentally ill inmates.
A group of about 30 Munster High School students enjoyed their time with We the People program coordinators from the Indiana Bar Foundation, attorneys, and others who helped judge their presentations April 6 at Baker & Daniels’ downtown Indianapolis office. This was the firm’s fifth time hosting an Indiana We the People team just weeks before the national competition, which takes place April 22-27.
Indiana has lost a chance at having one of its own law professors be chosen to lead a top Department of Justice post, where
she would have helped advise the president and executive branch on questions about the Constitution and interpretation of
the law.
In the world of campaign finance and election law, Terre Haute attorney Jim Bopp is one of the leading legal minds involved
in some of the most influential cases in these areas of law.
Courts nationally began in the mid-1990s to focus on mental illness and how the judiciary could fine-tune what it does to
better address that issue. But many within the Hoosier legal community say that the criminal justice system hasn’t gone far
enough in the past decade, and both the courts and society are a long way from where they need to be on addressing mental
illness.
Long before he became Greenwood’s police chief, attorney Joe Pitcher recalls sitting as a special judge in town court and
facing an Unauthorized Practice of Law case that may be one of few like it in Indiana.
A federal judge has ordered an ex-mayor and top allies to pay more than $108 million in damages for a voting scandal a decade
ago, but in doing so he’s rejected the Indiana Attorney General’s most novel and far-reaching legal arguments in a landmark
civil racketeering case centered on public corruption in East Chicago.
Hoosier lawyers and judges were kept on the edge of their seats as the Indiana General Assembly navigated its final days of
the session, reviving talk on two issues that have significant impact on the state’s judiciary and legal system.
During the early months of the year you might have found Andreas Wissman clerking at an Indianapolis firm, having dinner at
a state appellate judge’s home, observing a civil or criminal trial in federal court, or even paging at the Indiana Statehouse.
But the well-versed 28-year-old law student isn’t a permanent part of the Hoosier legal community.
More than a year since she was first nominated to head the Office of Legal Counsel, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee March
4 approved Indiana law professor Dawn Johnsen along party lines for the second time.
Hoosier lawmakers are revising state law following the confusion created by an Indiana Supreme Court ruling last year, which
involves how convicted sex offenders can be removed from a statewide registry if they believe registration wasn't required
at the time of their conviction.
In the last days of the legislative session, lawmakers addressed funding proposals in HB 1154 on converting Marion County commissioners into magistrates and using a $35 fee on traffic infractions to pay for this; SB 307 that would allow a $50 fee on Bartholomew County traffic infractions to pay for a new Superior Court there; and SB 399 on capping traffic violation fines statewide.
Energy is one of the major issues environmentalists and lawyers who work with companies concerned about green technology are keeping an eye on during the 2010 Indiana legislative session.
In his 35 years as a lawyer-legislator, Sen. Richard Bray has thought about whether he should get involved in litigation because
of his role as an elected state official. While he doesn't recall this ever affecting his involvement on a case or legislation
before him, the veteran attorney from Martinsville, who practices with his son at The Bray Law Office, sees how it could present
problems.
After winning the We The People simulated congressional hearing competition in December, one of the largest first-place
teams in Indiana in at least seven years will head to Washington, D.C., for the national competition in late April.
For a little more than a year, Grant Superior Judge Mark Spitzer has presided over his local drug court and
has witnessed what he describes as remarkable results from the problem-solving court model.
An economy gone sour and law firms not hiring summer associates are familiar concerns for law students now, but these issues also affected lawyers who faced a recession when they graduated from law school in the early 1990s.
The Hoosier legal community is publicly praising the newest nominees for the state's federal bench as good choices, particularly for those interested in seeing a more diverse judiciary.
After her nomination to head the Office of Legal Counsel was returned to the president at the end of 2009, an Indiana University Maurer School of Law – Bloomington professor is expected to be renominated by President Barack Obama.
State lawmakers want to crack down on child support collections and make it tougher for deadbeat parents to not pay what's owed.