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Standard Nine: Training
- American Bar Association, Standards for Criminal Justice, Standard 5-1.4, supra, p. 47.
- The training of defenders and assigned counsel panel members should be systematic and comprehensive. Defenders should receive training which is at least on an equal par with that received by the prosecutor and the judge.
- An intensive entry-level training program should be established to ensure that all attorneys, prior to representing the indigent accused, have the basic defense skills necessary to provide adequate and effective representation.
- A defender institute should be established at the national level which would conduct intensive training programs aimed at imparting basic defense skills to new defenders.
- Each state would establish its own defender training program to instruct new defenders in substantive state law, procedure and practice, and state and federal post-conviction remedies.
- Every defender office should establish its own orientation program for new attorneys. In areas served by a coordinated assigned counsel system the administrator should establish such a program for new panel members.
- In-service training and continuing legal education programs should be established on a systematic basis at the state and local level.
- Every defender office should establish its own in-service training program. In large offices a supervisory system should be established.
- Every agency should provide an orientation program for all attorneys and legal interns to inform them of office procedures and policies.
- Every agency should provide a training program for staff attorneys who do not meet the requirements of Section 2B of Guideline Number 2 ("Minimum Qualifications for Agency Lawyers"). The program should consist of a forty-hour curriculum, including:
- Lectures, seminars and reading assignments covering pertinent statutory and case law materials, and
- Field visits (including tours of all legal detention facilities) and court observation, and
- Simulated client and witness interviews and simulated trial situations.
- In-house training programs should be required by staff attorneys on a regular basis. Continuous training should be sufficiently extensive to keep all attorneys abreast of developments in criminal law, criminal procedure, and the forensic sciences. Minutes and agenda of these activities should be maintained, and should be available to the Accrediting Committee.
- Every agency should seek to enroll staff attorneys in national, statewide, and local training programs and courses that foster trial advocacy skills.
National Advisory Commission on Criminal Justice Standards and Goals, Task Force on Courts, 1973, Standard 13.16:
- The training of public defender and assigned counsel panel members should be systematic and comprehensive. Defenders should receive training at least equal to that received by the prosecutor and the judge. An intensive entry-level training program should be established at State and national levels to assure that all attorneys, prior to representing the indigent accused, have the basic defense skills necessary to provide effective representation.
A defender training program should be established at the national level to conduct intensive training programs aimed at imparting basic defense skills to new defenders and other lawyers engaged in criminal defense work.
Each State should establish its own defender training program to instruct new defenders and assigned panel members in substantive law procedure and practice.
Every defender office should establish its own orientation program for new staff attorneys and for new panel members participating in provision of defense services by assigned counsel.
In-service training and continuing legal education programs should be established on a systematic basis at the State and local level for public defenders, their staff attorneys, and lawyers on assigned counsel panels as well as for other interested lawyers.
National Legal Aid and Defender Association, Standards for Defender Services, Standard V, Training of Defenders and Assigned Counsel:
National Legal Aid and Defender Association, Guidelines for Negotiating and Awarding Indigent Legal Defense Contracts, 1983 Draft, Guideline III-15, Professional Development:
- The contract should provide funds and sufficient staff-time to permit systematic and comprehensive training of attorneys and professional staff. Resources for training should be no less than is provided to prosecutors and judges in the jurisdiction, and should include continuing legal education programs, attendance at local training programs, and the opportunity to review training and professional publications and tapes. Where the size of the contract program merits, all attorneys should be required to attend an intensive, entry-level training program.
Seattle-King County Bar Association Indigent Defense Services Task Force, Guidelines for Accreditation of Defender Agencies, 1982, Guideline Number 3:
- The orientation and training of staff attorneys should be systematic and comprehensive.
National Legal Aid and Defender Association, Guidelinesfor the Appointment and Performance of Counsel in DeathPenalty Cases, 1988, Standard 9.1, Training:
- Attorneys seeking eligibility to receive appointments pursuant to these Standards should have completed the training requirements specified in Standard 5.1. Attorneys seeking to remain on the roster of attorneys from which assignments are made should continue, on a periodic basis, to attend and successfully complete training or educational programs which focus on advocacy in death penalty cases. The legal representation plan for each jurisdiction should include sufficient funding to enable adequate and frequent training programs to be conducted for counsel in capital cases and counsel who wish to be placed on the roster.
P/T Paralegal - TDA
