Indiana Supreme Court Justice Mark Massa didn’t follow a traditional path into the law, but he says a series of “incredibly lucky breaks” propelled him forward in the profession.
As the Indiana legal profession re-evaluates its bar exam in light of slumping pass rates, a leader in bar examinations and bar admissions offered some insight into testing and provided some advice, as well as some warnings, about making changes.
Indiana’s newest attorneys were congratulated on their admission to the bar and welcomed to the practice of law Wednesday with soaring rhetoric and practical advice from their colleagues in the bar and on the bench.
A case that split the Indiana Supreme Court last December over a criminal defendant’s mental capacity to appreciate the wrongfulness of her actions dovetails into a larger question looming before the U.S. Supreme Court — whether states have to provide laws that allow for an insanity defense.
Indiana Chief Justice Loretta Rush will serve a second term as head of the Hoosier judiciary after a unanimous reappointment vote Wednesday from the Judicial Nominating Commission.
In upholding a decades-old rule recently codified through a legislative amendment, the Indiana Supreme Court has ruled in companion cases that trial courts can only modify a sentence entered as part of a fixed-plea agreement if the modified sentence would not have violated the plea agreement at the time the sentence was originally imposed.
The Indiana Judicial Nominating Commission will vote this month to select the state’s next chief justice. In Friday announcement, the Indiana Supreme Court said the commission will begin interviews regarding the reappointment of Chief Justice Loretta H. Rush at 9 a.m. August 21 in Room 319 of the Statehouse.
The tables were turned on the Indiana Supreme Court justices Friday morning. Instead of being the ones to ask the questions, the five justices were treated as potential jurors during a panel discussion at the Indiana State Bar Association Solo/Small Firm Conference in French Lick.
Indiana Supreme Court justices heard arguments in two consolidated and procedurally identical cases Thursday, questioning whether two juveniles who appeared at disposition modification hearings via Skype were denied their rights to be present.
A case involving a brownfield cleanup and a question of when a claim for recovery of costs can be brought met a skeptical Indiana Supreme Court Thursday, when the justices quizzed both sides on the meaning and implication of the state’s Environmental Legal Action statute.
Indiana’s chief justice and the most senior jurist on the Indiana Supreme Court published a sharp dissent Tuesday from a 3-2 ruling that could pave the way for defendants to be sentenced via video. Chief Justice Loretta Rush and Justice Steven David argued in the minority that defendants have a constitutional right to be physically present when a judge imposes a sentence for a crime.
A bill that defines the shore of Lake Michigan as belonging to the public and spells out public recreational uses of the shoreline has moved to the full Indiana Senate. Meanwhile, a petition seeking to privatize Indiana’s Great Lakes beaches will be before justices of the Supreme Court of the United States this week.
A Grant County couple must now abide by a Department of Natural Resources order to bring a dam into compliance with the Dam Safety Act following a divided Indiana Supreme Court decision that affirmed the order’s enforcement.
The Indiana Supreme Court denied transfer in 29 cases it reviewed last week, but split on whether to hear three of those cases.
Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb now has 60 days to select three new Marion County judges after the committee created to interview judicial candidates formally submitted its recommendation of nine finalists to fill three upcoming Superior Court vacancies.
The Marion County Judicial Selection Committee has selected nine finalists to be considered to fill three upcoming Marion County court vacancies after interviewing 40 candidates over a three-day period. It’s the first time the committee has selected nominees to the trial court bench for the governor’s selection.
As the Marion County Judicial Selection Committee prepares to conduct its first judicial retention interviews later this month, the committee also has begun accepting applications to fill three upcoming vacancies created by the retirement later this year of judges who will not seeking retention.
Marion County will start its new judicial selection process next month with the interviews of 17 judges who want to stand for retention in the November 2018 elections. Three other judges — Democrats Thomas Carroll and Rebekah Pierson-Treacy and Republican Michael Keele — have decided to retire at the end of this year.
The 2015 version of Indiana’s habitual offender statute requires an offender to have been released from all lower-level felonies within 10 years to establish a habitual offender enhancement, the Indiana Supreme Court. Justices reversed a trial court that overruled a reversal of a defendant’s objection to his habitual offender charges.
Indiana precedent does not allow both a respondeat superior and negligent hiring claim against an employer to proceed if the employer has admitted their employee was acting within the course and scope of their employment when the negligence occurred, the Indiana Supreme Court ruled in an opinion that upheld partial summary judgment for Pizza Hut.