Happy New Year Readers! We hope your holiday was relaxing, lazy, and full of what makes you happy. It’s time to get back to work & as always, OJD is here to round up the week.
Tip of the Week
Complaints Received
We are focusing our Tips of the Week on stages of juvenile proceedings that disproportionately impact youth of color. This week we are considering complaints received:
Attorneys are appointed to cases once a complaint is received by juvenile justice, then filed as a complaint. So generally attorneys can’t impact whether or not a complaint is received. But attorneys can prevent the case from going to adjudication by:
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Asking for a dismissal for various reasons, such as the victim no longer wishes to prosecute or the juvenile has already made amends through a mediation program or restitution.
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Continue the case for an opportunity for the juvenile to participate in a program such as suggested above, or Teen Court if your jurisdiction has one.
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After an admission, ask the court to informally defer prosecution without an adjudication. While the Code does not explicitly discuss this, prosecutors have broad discretion to dismiss allegations under N.C.G.S. 7B-2404. If an adjudication is entered, the court may still “dismiss the case” under 7B-2501(d), in effect not entering a disposition.
Reminders!
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You may know or remember from last year that IDS offered 11 free-to-attend webinars on forensic evidence. This year IDS will continue to offer the webinars as part of a more formal series, which will help make it easier for you to attend, while getting CLE credit! This new series will start on Feb. 4.
If you’d like to attend some or all of the programs, please sign up using the link below. We look forward to seeing you on the webinars!
2021 IDS Forensic Science Education Series
2. Duke University has only had a handful of responses from NC public defenders, and would really like more so that they can more accurately learn about practices in North Carolina specifically.
You can find the survey at this link (https://virginia.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_3V6Ob2DbXpPl4K9), and it will only take about 10 minutes to complete, and they will mail you a gift-card for your participation. The survey will be closing soon, so please complete it in the next two weeks.
If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to reach out to william.crozier@duke.edu.
3. Have you seen the new Juvenile Code? See a sneak peek below! Thanks to Eric for the picture.
From LaTobia,
I am seeking guest writers for our blog for each month this year, specifically those in juvenile defense or youth advocacy work. Topics will be of your choice, but should include some supporting information such as statutes, cases or graphics. These blogs are geared to help fellow attorneys and create discussion in regards to juvenile proceedings and court processes. Feel free to send me an email at latobia.s.avent@nccourts.org so we can discuss this further or if you’d like to volunteer. Also, feel free to send this message to your colleagues and friends, whoever may be a great contributor. Thanks!
