Alan Feigenbaum discusses how a recent New York divorce case involving the valuation of a family-owned construction business ...

As law enforcement and elected officials scream for a do-over regarding bail reform, they urge that judges should be given the discretion to remand people they believe to be dangerous. NYPD ...

Trial judges often invoke a familiar line when pressed for the reasoning behind a close call: “That’s within my discretion.” In theory, judicial discretion is a narrow tool for resolving issues where ...

Over the next 20 months, state legislators are expected to study, debate, and vote on what could be the first major reform of Washington’s criminal sentencing law since 1981. The starting point of the ...

As the state Legislature grapples with whether it should amend new bail reforms, a refrain among critics is that under the new rules, judges lack “judicial discretion” to determine if certain ...

Imagine you’re a judge taking up your morning docket. The day starts with an arraignment and bail hearing for an individual charged with first degree assault with a firearm. The prosecutor informs you ...

We have seen cases where courts gave close to near impossible conditions which leave the defendants finding it virtually impossible to meet thus perpetuating these defendants in prisons. Judicial ...

The connection between the principle of open justice and the reporting of court proceedings is not merely functional. It follows that the principle of open justice is inextricably linked to the ...

When a legal rule is not adequate to reach a conclusion, honorable judges use their discretionary power by seizing assistance from legal principles, which they are entitled to do. Although statutes of ...

Put generally, prosecutorial discretion is the power not to act to enforce the law. In Part One of this series, I focused on the debated nature and origins of prosecutorial discretion. My goal in Part ...

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Judicial Conference on Friday issued guidance on the federal judiciary's new policy making it more difficult to "judge-shop" following public criticism from top Republicans in ...

For many Canadians, the factors courts use to determine the sentence for a criminal offence can be a bit of mystery. While judges have a degree of discretion in sentencing criminal offenders, they ...