By Sam Rutherford
On March 11, 2022, the Human Rights Defense Center (HRDC), PLN’s publisher, filed suit in U.S. District Court for the District of New Hampshire under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, alleging that the Strafford County House of Correction (HOC) violated its rights under the First and Fourteenth ...
By Sam Rutherford
On February 25, 2022, the Human Rights Defense Center (HRDC), publisher of PLN and Criminal Legal News (CLN), filed suit in U.S. District Court for the District of Nebraska against Scott Frakes, Director of the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services (DCS), under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 ...
By Sam Rutherford
On February 5, 2022, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit affirmed the summary judgment dismissal of a pretrial detainee’s federal civil rights claim under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, agreeing with the lower court that a jail guard was not guilty of failure to protect ...
Division I of the Washington State Court of Appeals has affirmed a trial court dismissal of an action challenging phone companies' failure to disclose the rates for collect calls made by Washington prisoners. Relief was denied because the plaintiffs did not bring the appropriate agency into the suit and did ...
The Washington Supreme Court recently held that prisoners are entitled to good time credits for time served in presentence detention, even if they receive a firearm or other deadly weapon sentence enhancement following conviction. Understanding the Court's ruling first requires a brief discussion of Washington's firearm and deadly weapon enhancement ...
Represent Yourself in Court: How to Prepare & Try a Winning Case, 3rd Ed.
By Attorneys Paul Bergman & Sara BermanBarrett, Nolo Press, 2001 (528 pages)
Reviewed by Sam Rutherford
The third edition of Represent Yourself in Court is a plainenglish guide to handling a civil case from start to ...
By Sam Rutherford
The case, Corner v. State of Washington , [see page 6] is only one of many medical neglect suits that the Washington Department of Corrections (DOC) has settled. In fact, below is a comprehensive list of the medical neglect cases filed by prisoners that the DOC settled ...
At any given time there are approximately 500,000 people incarcerated in the more than 3,500 city and county jails across the United States. Some of these individuals are confined while awaiting trial, others are serving relatively short sentences for offenses ranging from misdemeanor or minor felony convictions to probation or ...
by Stephen Elias and Susan Levinkind
Legal Research does exactly what its title indicates; it explains how to find and understand the law. The book is written in easy to understand language, while imparting a vast amount of information in a comprehensive manner.
The book is broken down into sections ...
By L. Powell Belanger PSI Publishing, Inc. (745 Pages)
Reviewed by Sam Rutherford
The Prisoner's Guide to Survival is a new legal research tool that covers all aspects of federal litigation common to prisoners. The book is useful both to the novice pro se litigant and to the experienced attorney ...
