Happy Friday Readers! We’ve conquered the last week of February and ready to start new challenges on Monday, March 1, right? Right! A Monday and first of the month? Please! Just a little humor to get us going but as always, here’s to your week in review.
Tip of the Week – Discovery
The Juvenile Code has similar discovery rules to those followed in adult criminal court. Though Juvenile Court is in District Court, most jurisdictions understand that discovery transfer is a practice for both misdemeanors and felonies in Juvenile Court. Even if there’s an “automatic discovery” rule in your jurisdiction, you should always file a motion to receive discovery. Note that the state may also file a reciprocal motion, which may impact your decision on presenting expert opinion testimony or reports.
Have you seen our FINAL #BlackHistoryMonth Spotlights?
Charlotte Dover (Left) & Aleta Ballard (Right)
This week we showcased two great attorneys and their work within the juvenile defense community. First up was Charlotte Dover on Tuesday and Aleta Ballard on Thursday via our Twitter and FaceBook pages. To catch up on their spotlights: You can see Charlotte’s spotlight here & Aleta’s spotlight here. We would like to thank all of our Spotlight Attorney’s for being so willing to participate and show us what #BlackHistoryMonth means to each one of them and the importance of equality in our juvenile justice system. We appreciate you!
LGBTQ CLE: Representing LGBTQ Youth
OJD would like to thank Ames Simmons on his presentation for our Representing Youth CLE held on Wednesday. The class covered topics such as a LGBTQ 101, pronouns, identity, how to support and approach young LGBTQ members who may not know how they identify and how to advocate for them individually.
Eric Zogry for the NC Bar Blog
OJD’s Eric Zogry was a guest blogger for the NC Bar titled, “Reconsidering North Carolina’s Minimum Age of Jurisdiction. He speaks on the need to raise the minimum age of children that can be charged with a crime, citing committees and tasks forces that have worked to recommend what that age should be. To read Eric’s blog, click here.
Happy Weekend!