Attorney Training on Victim’s Rights

UCI Law School, Dr. Henry T. Nicholas, III Host California's First Attorney Educational Seminar on Victims' Rights

National Crime Victim Law Institute Will Offer Free MCLE Training on Enforcing Crime Victims' Rights After Passage of Marsy's Law

Irvine, CA - Jan. 12, 2010 - UCI Law School and Dr. Henry T. Nicholas, III will host a free Minimum Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) training session and awareness seminar on victims' rights Jan. 28, 2010 at UCI. The announcement comes a year after the passage of Marsy's Law, California's comprehensive Crime Victims' Bill of Rights, which was sponsored and co-authored by Dr. Nicholas, co-founder of Broadcom Corporation.

Dr. Nicholas is the brother of Marsy Nicholas, who was murdered in 1983. He formed Marsy'sLawforAll.org last year to help unify and expand the victims' rights movement.

"UCI School of Law is committed to being a pioneer in innovative legal education. This training session and seminar gives lawyers the essential tools they need to protect the rights given to crime victims through the passage of Marsy's Law," said UCI Law School Dean, Erwin Chemerinksy, who will co-host the seminar with Dr. Nicholas.

"This program is a vital step in protecting the rights afforded to crime victims through Marsy's Law," said Dr. Nicholas. "The crime victims' movement has won a major victory with the passage of this law, and now this training session will help lawyers to enforce victims' rights."

The National Crime Victim Law Institute (NCVLI) will offer an afternoon training session focusing on educating lawyers on crime victims' Marsy's Rights. These are the rights granted to crime victims through Marsy's Law, akin to defendants' Miranda Rights. The training session will fulfill four hours of lawyers' MCLE credit, including one hour of ethics. California requires all lawyers to complete 25 hours of MCLE training every three years.

Marsy's Law, an amendment to California's Constitution passed by voters on Nov. 4, 2008, was recognized as a seminal advance for victims' rights.

The program will begin with a victims' panel that will outline a brief history on the struggle for crime victims' rights and the need for well-trained lawyers to implement Marsy Rights. The panel will illuminate the problems crime victims face in the California judicial system.

Instructors from NCVLI will lead the training session and seminar, which will focus on providing the necessary training and templates on the most commonly used motions in trial and appellate court. Current litigation cases will be used as examples on how to best implement Marsy's Law.

"This MLCE completely embodies the mission of our organization and our instructors will adequately train lawyers to represent crime victims in our criminal justice system," said NCVLI Executive Director Meg Garvin.

To register for the event, please email events@law.uci.edu.

About MarsysLawForAll.org

MarsysLawForAll is focused on expanding the constitutional rights of crime victims nationwide and supporting the use of new technologies to help unify geographically-dispersed grass-roots organizations. Its new Web site, www.MarsysLawForAll.org, aims to enable the victims' rights movement to reach new members and promote the eventual passage of a U.S. Constitutional Amendment.

About UCI School of Law

UCI School of Law seeks to create the ideal law school for the 21st century by doing the best job passage in the country of training lawyers for the practice of law at the highest levels of the profession. The law school's Inaugural Class has a median grade point average and LSAT scores comparable to those of classes at top 20 law schools. Recruited from prestigious schools, the founding faculty has been ranked in the top 10 in a recent study. The student-faculty ratio is about 3:1, which is the best in the country. The law school's innovative curriculum stresses hands-on, interdisciplinary study and public service

About the National Crime Victim Law Institute

The National Crime Victim Law Institute was conceived in 1997 by Professor Doug Beloof to be a national resource for crime victims and their lawyers and to help enforce victims' rights. NCVLI actively promotes balance and fairness in the justice system through crime victim centered legal advocacy, education, and resource sharing. Since 2003, NCVLI has worked with the Office for Victims of Crime to launch twelve pro bono legal clinics across the country, provide legal technical assistance to practitioners nationwide and train criminal justice professionals on meaning, scope and enforceability of rights.