DOJ beefs up enforcement
The Justice Department rolled out a unified corporate enforcement policy and has dropped the one‑year experience requirement for new federal prosecutors — moves that expand enforcement capacity and incentives for self‑disclosure. Together these changes signal faster, more aggressive investigations into compliance failures, including digital accessibility complaints. (natlawreview.com) (mediaite.com)
The DOJ published its first-ever Department‑wide Corporate Enforcement and Voluntary Self‑Disclosure Policy on March 10, 2026, making a single CEP applicable across DOJ components except for antitrust matters. (justice.gov) The CEP preserves the four declination factors—voluntary self‑disclosure, full cooperation, timely remediation, and absence of aggravating circumstances—and formalizes those criteria for every U.S. Attorney’s Office. (goodwinlaw.com) The policy explicitly states that companies that timely self‑disclose and remediate may receive declinations or significant penalty reductions and that DOJ will move away from imposing monitorships where appropriate. (debevoise.com) On hiring, DOJ issued a March memo titled “Suspension of Attorney One Year Requirement” that permits U.S. Attorney offices to hire prosecutors without the prior one‑year practice minimum, a suspension the department says will run through February 28, 2027. (news.bloomberglaw.com) Multiple district job postings already reflect the change, listing only a law degree, bar admission, and U.S. citizenship for assistant U.S. attorney roles in districts including Alaska, Montana, New Hampshire and Oklahoma. (yahoo.com) The DOJ’s Civil Rights Division published a final Title II web‑and‑mobile accessibility rule in the Federal Register on April 24, 2024, with an effective date of June 24, 2024 and compliance deadlines of April 24, 2026 for public entities serving populations of 50,000 or more and April 26, 2027 for smaller entities. (govinfo.gov) Taken together: DOJ’s March 10, 2026 CEP, the hiring suspension in effect through February 28, 2027, and the April 24, 2026 Title II deadline for larger public entities create overlapping timelines for enforcement, self‑disclosure decisions, and staffing capacity across DOJ components. (justice.gov)
