A complete turnover in the Supreme Court bench, an expansion of judicial training options and a continued commitment to court technology has poised the Indiana judiciary in a state of hope for the future, Chief Justice Loretta Rush said today in her State of the Judiciary address.
A special prosecutor has been appointed to oversee the case against an Indianapolis City-County councilman charged with three counts of child molestation.
Multi-million-dollar verdicts in personal injury cases are rare in Indiana, but they signify a jury’s determination to provide quality of life for the injured, practitioners say.
Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill has asked a court to rule in the state’s favor against what he calls “a small group of marijuana enthusiasts operating in Indianapolis under the name ‘First Church of Cannabis.’” An attorney for the church said he was thrilled at Hill’s response to its lawsuit on religious freedom grounds.
The departure of Mary Beth Bonaventura as director of the Indiana Department of Child Services surprised several family law attorneys and social service providers. Uniformly, they agreed the former Lake County juvenile judge was a strong advocate for children and brought valuable experience to her tenure. Still, the department has struggled against internal and external challenges.
IBM Corp. must post a $25 million bond as it appeals a $78 million judgment in a long-running case that stems from the company’s failed effort to automate much of Indiana’s welfare services.
The Benton Circuit Court implemented mandatory electronic case filing on Tuesday, the first court to move to a mandatory system in 2018 as the state continues its push to introduce e-filing to all Indiana counties by the end of the year.
Breaking news and online updates of major legal stories were the most-read articles on TheIndianaLawyer.com in 2017, according to an analysis of pageviews. Here are the IL’s Top 20 most-read online stories of the past year.
The closing of 4-year-old Indiana Tech Law School in Fort Wayne, and the revelation that 138-year-old Valparaiso University Law School faced an uncertain future, made law school troubles the top legal news story of 2017, as determined by the staff of Indiana Lawyer. Changes on the federal and state bench also were among the year’s top stories.
A Warrick Superior Court judge has been temporarily transferred to the county’s circuit court while the sitting circuit judge is unavailable to perform his duties.
The Indiana Supreme Court is increasing the minimum number of senior judge service days available to the state’s courts as a means of enabling courts to provide timely justice to litigants.
The Indiana Supreme Court will introduce a new case type into the state’s uniform case numbering system at the start of the new year.
One Indiana county implemented voluntary electronic filing on Friday while another moved to a mandatory system, continuing the push for statewide implementation of e-filing that is slated to wrap up in the next 12 months.
Read the Indiana appellate court decisions from the latest reporting period.
Though the prospect of virtual reality as a litigation tool seems improbable now, legal tech experts predict that in coming years, VR will appear regularly in courtrooms. That time is likely still years away, they said, but predecessor technology is already popping up in court now, preparing jurors, judges and attorneys for the day when futuristic technology becomes commonplace.
On the heels of criticism from a national organization and multiple lawsuits challenging Indiana’s public defender system, Indiana lawmakers and legal stakeholders are beginning to review the state’s public defense mechanisms to identify strategies for improvement.
A grand jury in Elkhart will decide whether a railroad officer was justified when he shot a 13-year-old boy who led police on a car chase.
An Indianapolis judge granted Simon Property Group Inc. a significant victory in its bid to stop Starbucks Corp. from closing 77 Teavana stores in Simon malls across the country.
An Indiana trial court properly granted summary judgment in favor of a charter school organizer under the Indiana Tort Claims Act because an organizer and charter school jointly make up the statutory definition of a “charter school,” the Indiana Court of Appeals ruled Monday. The appellate panel also upheld the constitutionality of classifying a charter school as a “governmental entity.”
A St. Joseph County official said he’s surprised a 37-acre tract in New Carlisle the county hopes to buy has been valued by court-appointed appraisers at more than four times what the county offered its owner.