Changes Planned to 1983 Prisoner Lawsuit Format A Welcome
Development
The
Washington University Law Review has published a study that they propose to
forward to Congress to change the primary litigation component by which
prisoners can sue for violations of their civil rights by prison
authorities. Commonly known as 1983
actions, the study notes that in 2015, “inmates filed nearly 27,000 civil
rights actions in federal court.”
Unfortunately,
this form was “based upon a model first developed in the 1970’s,” the report
continued, and can be “confusing to people not familiar with the law and can
diminish their chances of winning a lawsuit,” according to Richard Frankel of
Drexel University Kline School of Law and Alistair Newbern of Vanderbilt
University Law School
The recommended
changes would include not requiring a plaintiff to bring up his litigation
history, removing language that encourages the plaintiff to “briefly” state the
facts, replacing it with a provision asking for as much detail as possible, and
eliminating the portion of the form that asks prisoners to state the legal
grounds of their claim.
There are
enough hurdles to life in prison without having clear yet another one to get
relief for a civil rights violation.
Unfortunately, prison libraries have drastically curtailed or eliminated
legal research resources, and the authors of the study feel that this is unfair
and should be changed also.
Once again,
we are available for such actions, as well as many other prisoner relief
petitions, should you wish to pursue them. We encourage you to visit us at federallc@yahoo.com for further
information. Thank you.
Federal Legal Services, Inc.
A not-for-profit corporation
113 McHenry #173
