Proposes groundbreaking, fundamental reform for the adversarial legal system to keep innocent people from going to prison We rely on the adversarial legal system to hold offenders accountable, ensure everyone is playing by the same rules, and keep our streets safe. Unfortunately, a grave condition lingers under the surface: at all times the imprisonment of possibly tens of thousands of innocent people. The Plea of Innocence offers a fundamental reform of the adversarial system: plausibly innocent people may now plead innocent and require the government to search for exonerating facts; in return, they will be required to waive their right to remain silent, speak to government agents, and participate in a search for truth. While almost all the participants within the system hope that only guilty people will be convicted, the unfortunate reality is that innocent people are convicted and imprisoned at an alarming rate. With the privatization of defense institutions, accused innocent people are themselves responsible for finding the facts that could exonerate them. Though the poor are represented by public defenders-in fact, almost no one who is charged with a crime has enough money to pay for a complete defense-it is still accused people, not public officials, who bear the entire burden of proving their innocence. Tim Bakken believes that reform of the three-hundred-year-old adversarial system is long overdue, and that the government should be responsible for searching for truth-exonerating facts for innocent people-rather than being satisfied with due process. While it is improbable that all the facts in any case will ever be known, the essential point is that the acquisition of facts will almost always benefit an innocent person who has been accused of a crime. Featuring compelling evidence and concrete steps for reform, The Plea of Innocence is at once sensible and revolutionary, a must-read for anyone invested in restoring truth to the justice system.

This account of six families whose children were wrongly seized by child protection services vividly illustrates the constitutional balancing act where medicine, family interests, and child safety can clash. They Took the Kids Last Night shows a rarely exposed side of America's contemporary struggle to address child abuse, telling the stories of loving families who were almost destroyed by false allegations—readily accepted by caseworkers, doctors, the media, and, too often, the courts. Each of the six wrongly accused families profiled in this book faced an epic and life-changing battle when child protection caseworkers came to their homes to take their kids. In each case, a child had an injury whose cause was unknown; it could have been due to an accident, a medical condition, or abuse. Each family ultimately exonerated itself and restored its family life, but still bears scars from the experience that will never disappear. The book tells why and how the child protection system failed these families. It also examines the larger flaws in our country's child protection safety net that is supposed to sort out the innocent from the guilty in order to protect children.

The Pocket Lawyer series is designed for members of the public who want 'how to' guidance in situations that would normally require expert advice. Each title: is written by experts in their field contains all the information you need in one book has an accessible and user-friendly layout and structure is supported by a companion website providing free updates and ready-to-use documents and letters. Under the Inland Revenue's Rent-a-Room scheme you can earn GBP4,250 free of tax by taking in a lodger. This book will help you to decide whether taking in a lodger is for you. Once decided, it will guide you through your legal obligations as a landlord, help you choose and vet a suitable lodger and help you draft an agreement that is legally sound and fair for both of you.

Since the publication of its first edition in 2005, Advocacy Practice for Social Justice has served as a clear, comprehensive, and practical resource for social work courses in advocacy, community practice, and macro practice. Now in its fourth edition, this text provides extensive information on the value base for advocacy; an examination of why people get involved in advocacy; and step-by-step instructions for social workers and others who want to impact laws, regulations, and policies at any level. Bearing in mind the National Association of Social Workers' Code of Ethics' requirements to advocate on behalf of vulnerable populations, readers learn that advocacy is a problem-solving technique similar to that used in social work practice of all types. The book moves through the stages of advocacy: getting involved; understanding the issue; planning; advocating through education, persuasion, and negotiation; presenting information effectively; monitoring and evaluating results; and integrating advocacy into a social worker's everyday practice. The fourth edition's inclusion of new topics and solid foundation in social work values make it a must-read as social work students and practitioners work diligently to maintain the profession's focus on successful advocacy for social justice.

Winner, 2019 Global Legal Skills Book Award, given by the Global Legal Skills Conference An essential handbook for international lawyers and students Focusing on vocabulary, Essential Legal English in Context introduces the US legal system and its terminology. Designed especially for foreign-trained lawyers and students whose first language is not English, the book is a must-read for those who want to expand their US legal vocabulary and basic understanding of US government. Ross uses a unique approach by selecting legal terms that arise solely within the context of the levels and branches of US government, including terminology related to current political issues such as partisanship. Inspired by her students' questions over her years of teaching, she includes a vast collection of legal vocabulary, concepts, idioms, and phrasal verbs and unpacks concepts embedded in US case law, such as how the US constitutional separation of powers may affect a court's interpretation of the law. The handbook differentiates basic terms in civil and criminal cases and compares terms that may seem similar because of close spellings but in fact have different meanings. For instance, what is the distinction between "taking the stand" and "taking a stand?" What is the difference between "treaties" and "treatises"? Featuring illustrations and hands-on exercises, Essential Legal English in Context is a valuable self-study resource for those who want to improve their legal English terminology before entering a US law school, studying US law or government, or working as a seconded attorney to a US law firm. Instructors can use the handbook in an introductory US legal English course.

What is the future of civil rights? Like a living thing, discrimination evolves, adapting to its time. As discrimination becomes more individualized, as difference becomes more pronounced, we need a civil rights that is attuned to the way identity is performed today. Outsiders is filled with stories that demand attention, stories of people whose search for identity has cast them to the margins. Their stories reveal that we need to refresh our vision of civil rights. Taking its cue from religious discrimination law, Outsiders proposes two major changes to civil rights law. The first is a right to personality. Identity comes from within. The goal of civil rights law should be to take people as they come, to let each of us determine who we are and how we relate to the world around us. The second change is a shift in how the law responds to discrimination. The critical question driving equality law should be whether there is space to accommodate a person's identity. Accommodations are about respecting difference, not erasing it. Accommodations are a way to bring outsiders in. Outsiders seeks to change the way we think about identity, equality, and discrimination. It argues that difference, not sameness, should be the cornerstone of civil rights. Mixing doctrine and theory, art, and personal narrative, Outsiders proposes a civil rights for everyone. Being different is universal. We are all outsiders.

An authoritative and up-to-date introduction to the American legal system. In this sixth edition of his bestselling classic, Jay Feinman provides an authoritative and up-to-date overview of the American legal system. In the years since the publication of the fifth edition, there have been many important developments on the legal front. The Supreme Court has become more conservative and is in the process of handing down important decisions that will change the law on affirmative action, abortion, gun rights, presidential power, and religious rights. Feinman covers all of this and expands his discussion of originalism, the guiding philosophy of many conservative jurists serving on the federal bench now. He also addresses the rapidly changing legal landscape in a variety of issue areas: race and the criminal justice system, cryptocurrency, and tort reform, among others. This fully updated edition of Law 101 accounts for all these developments and more, as Feinman once again covers all the main subjects taught in the first year of law school. Drawing from noteworthy, infamous, and even outrageous examples and cases, he discusses every facet of the American legal tradition, including constitutional law, the litigation process, and criminal, property, tort, and contract law. A key to learning about the law is understanding legal vocabulary, and Feinman helps by clarifying terms like "due process" and "equal protection," as well as by drawing distinctions between terms like "murder" and "manslaughter." Above all, Feinman reveals to readers of all kinds that despite its complexities and quirks, the law can be understood by everyone. Perfect for students contemplating law school, journalists covering legislatures, or even casual fans of "court-television" shows, Law 101 is a clear and accessible introduction to the American legal system.

Law and History contains a broad range of essays by prominent legal historians, which explore the ways in which history has been used by lawyers. Largely theoretical in focus, the volume covers a broad range of issues, including discussions of norms in medieval England, the works of Montesquieu, Maine, and Weber, and of the nature of legal argument in nineteenth-century England, and in twentieth- century war crimes trials.

Taking a multi-disciplinary perspective, and one grounded in human rights, Unaccompanied young migrants explores in-depth the journeys migrant youths take through the UK legal and care systems. Arriving with little agency, what becomes of these children as they grow and assume new roles and identities, only to risk losing legal protection as they reach eighteen? Through international studies and crucially the voices of the young migrants themselves, the book examines the narratives they present and the frameworks of culture and legislation into which they are placed. It challenges existing policy and questions, from a social justice perspective, what the treatment of this group tells us about our systems and the cultural presuppositions on which they depend.

After reading this guide you will: - Recognize and avoid common decision-making errors in litigation;- Anticipate likely court outcomes more accurately;- Communicate with clients about what's most important to them in their case;- Help clients make better decisions;- Negotiate and mediate more effectively; and- Learn about technological tools to help make decisions in litigation.Everyone involved in the settlement of lawsuits should make use of this valuable resource with many practical illustrations and checklists. Even the most experienced litigators will gain valuable guidance for effective and ethical practice of litigation and negotiation. This book also is very relevant for corporate and government counsel and executives, settlement conference judges, and law school faculty and students.

As a result of globalization, cross-border transactions and litigation, and multilingual legislation, outsourcing legal translation has become common practice. Unfortunately, over-reliance on such outsourcing has given rise to significant dangers, including information asymmetry, goal divergence, and risk. Legal Translation Outsourced provides the only current reference on commercial legal translation performed outside institutions. Juliette Scott casts a critical eye on the practice as it now stands, offering an analysis of key risks and constraints. Her work is informed by empirical data of the legal translation outsourcing markets of 41 countries. Scott proposes original theoretical models aimed both at training legal translators and informing all stakeholders, including principals and agents. These include models of legal translation performance; a classification of constraints on legal translation applying upstream, during and downstream of translation work; and a description of the complex chain of supply. Working to improve the enterprise itself, Scott shows how implementing a comprehensive legal translation brief-a sorely needed template-can significantly benefit clients by increasing the fitness of translated texts. Further, she opens a number of avenues for future research with an eye to translator empowerment and professionalization.

How Judges Decide Cases is a unique and practical guide which looks at how cases are decided and judgments are written. It examines the style and language of judges expressing judicial opinion and considers the drive for rational justice. The book is founded upon independent research in the form of interviews conducted with judges at every level, from deputy district judges to justices of the Supreme Court, and the practical application of academic material more usually devoted to the structure and analysis of wider prose writing. This new edition has been revised to take into account modern scientific thinking on bias in decision-making and is generic to all areas of contentious law. Newly appointed recorders, deputy judges, tribunal chairman, lay magistrates and arbitrators as well as experienced practitioners will find it invaluable as a guide to the deconstruction of judgments for the purpose of appeal.

The criminal justice process is dependent on accurate documentation. Criminal justice professionals can spend 50-75 percent of their time writing administrative and research reports. The information provided in these reports is crucial to the functioning of our system of justice. Report Writing for Criminal Justice Professionals, Sixth Edition, provides practical guidance-with specific writing samples and guidelines-for providing strong reports. Most law enforcement, security, corrections, and probation and parole officers have not had adequate training in how to provide well-written, accurate, brief, and complete reports. Report Writing for Criminal Justice Professionals covers everything officers need to learn-from basic English grammar to the difficult but often-ignored problem of creating documentation that will hold up in court. This new edition includes updates to reference materials and citations, as well as further supporting examples and new procedures in digital and electronic report writing.

Lawyers' Skills helps students develop the legal skills required for successful practice in the modern solicitor's firm. The book equips students with a solid understanding of the theory and concepts underpinning the key skills areas of legal writing and drafting, interviewing and advising, practical legal research, and advocacy. Guidance is also provided on a range of other professional skills which should be mastered before going into practice, including effective time management, negotiation, and email etiquette. The inclusion of realistic examples from practice, tasks, and reflective exercises emphasizes the interactive nature of skills as a subject and encourages students to develop, practise, and refine their legal skills. Chapter summaries, diagrams, and self-test questions are also featured throughout and provide additional learning support to students. The text is essential reading for all LPC students and is also a useful source of reference for newly-qualified practitioners. Digital formats and resources This edition is available for students and institutions to purchase in a variety of formats, and is supported by online resources. - Access to a digital version of this book comes with every purchase to enable a more flexible learning experience - 12 month's access to this title on Oxford Learning Link will be available from 15 July 2022. Access must be redeemed by 1 August 2024. - The online resources for students include a selection of realistic sample documentation designed to highlight legal writing and drafting in action across a range of legal documents, and references to further reading for those wishing to delve deeper into the subject area. - For lecturers a test bank of multiple choice questions is available to registered adopters and can be used to assess students' understanding of topics covered in the book.

Details the rapidly growing field of dispute resolution

This nuts-and-bolts guide offers a blueprint for developing the skills you need to master the often complex and emotionally charged process of family mediation.

In a lively and entertaining style, Robert Coulson, former president of the American Arbitration Association and an internationally recognized expert in dispute resolution, presents exactly what training, marketing, and experience are needed to compete successfully in this rapidly growing field. The family mediation process is revealed, from the first step of persuading parties to mediate through the last details of nailing down a settlement.

Current information is provided on many legal issues, including:

• marriage and divorce
• child support
• alimony
• custody
• visitation

This book discusses how judges qualify their activities as objective. The data for this project was retrieved from a large sample of cases using Langacker's methodology. The sample included over a thousand decisions from Brazil, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Romania and the UK. The decisions considered allegations of judicial bias, unfairness, and injustice. Pre-judices are shared cognitive methods that legal practitioners perceive as necessary. The results of the study directly confirm Pierre Legrand's claims of pre-judices in legal discourse, and as corollary, Jules L. Coleman and Brian Leiter's idea of modest objectivity in law.

Becoming a lawyer is about much more than acquiring knowledge and technique. As law students learn the law and acquire some basic skills, they are also inevitably forming a deep sense of themselves in their new roles as lawyers. That sense of self - the student's nascent professional identity - needs to take a particular form if the students are to fulfil the public purposes of lawyers and find deep meaning and satisfaction in their work. In this book, Professors Patrick Longan, Daisy Floyd, and Timothy Floyd combine what they have learned in many years of teaching and research concerning the lawyer's professional identity with lessons derived from legal ethics, moral psychology, and moral philosophy. They describe in depth the six virtues that every lawyer needs as part of his or her professional identity, and they explore both the obstacles to acquiring and deploying those virtues and strategies for overcoming those impediments. The result is a straightforward guide for law students on how to cultivate a professional identity that will allow them to make a meaningful difference in the lives of others and to flourish as individuals.

In this book, 78 leading attorneys in California and New York describe how they evaluate, negotiate and resolve litigation cases. Selected for their demonstrated skill in predicting trial outcomes and knowing when cases should be settled or taken to trial, these attorneys identify the key factors in case evaluation and share successful strategies in pre-trial discovery, negotiation, mediation, and trials. Integrating law and psychology, the book shows how skilled attorneys mentally frame cases, understand jurors' perspectives, develop persuasive themes and arguments and achieve exceptional results for clients.

Providing public access to educational material from schools and universities, research and teaching is viewed politically as a means of survival for industrialized countries that have few natural resources, like Germany. The author examined the conditions that provide for success in research and teaching by means of a legal comparison of the copyright laws in Germany and Sweden.

Employability Skills for Law Students is designed to help you: * identify the academic, practical and transferable skills that can be developed whilst studying for a law degree; * recognise the value of those skills to employers (within both law and non-law professions); * identify any gaps in your skills portfolio; * maximise opportunities to develop new skills through participation in a range of activities; * effectively demonstrate your skills to potential employers; * improve your employability prospects on graduation from university. Whether you are in your first year or your last, this book will ensure you make the most of your time at university, developing skills inside and outside the lecture theatre, so that you are in the best possible position to pursue your chosen career on graduation - as a solicitor, barrister, or a completely different profession. An interactive Online Resource Centre provides a range practical activities designed to give you opportunities to practise and receive feedback upon the skills you are developing.

Everything you need to enter the exciting field of legal mediation

To be an effective mediator, it's essential to possess the ability to take control of animated situations, offer advice, and facilitate discussion--all the while remaining neutral without formulating biased judgment. "Success as a Mediator For Dummies" helps you acquire these attributes and much more.

Aspiring mediators will learn the importance of upholding an honorable reputation, the skills, personality traits, and characteristics of a good mediator, and how to effectively market a successful mediation career. Plus, you'll get practical advice about finding work in the field, realistic salary information, and tips on as tips on identifying whether you have the skills and tools to become a good mediator.The steps necessary to become a mediator (education, training, licensing, states-specific requirements, etc.)How your education and professional background can enhance your mediation workSample rules and standards of conductAll the steps necessary to build and market a successful private practice in mediation, or flourish as a mediator in a law firm, corporation, school, or non-profit organization

Whether you have a background in law or an interest in legal careers, "Success as a Mediator For Dummies" gives you everything you need to enter the exciting field of legal mediation.

The criminal justice process is dependent on accurate documentation. Criminal justice professionals can spend 50-75 percent of their time writing administrative and research reports. The information provided in these reports is crucial to the functioning of our system of justice. Report Writing for Criminal Justice Professionals, Sixth Edition, provides practical guidance-with specific writing samples and guidelines-for providing strong reports. Most law enforcement, security, corrections, and probation and parole officers have not had adequate training in how to provide well-written, accurate, brief, and complete reports. Report Writing for Criminal Justice Professionals covers everything officers need to learn-from basic English grammar to the difficult but often-ignored problem of creating documentation that will hold up in court. This new edition includes updates to reference materials and citations, as well as further supporting examples and new procedures in digital and electronic report writing.

According to masculinities theory, masculinity is not a biological imperative but a social construction. Men engage in a constant struggle with other men to prove their masculinity. Masculinities and the Law develops a multidimensional approach. It sees categories of identity--including various forms of raced, classed, and sex-oriented masculinities--as operating simultaneously and creating different effects in different contexts. By applying multidimensional masculinities theory to law, this cutting-edge collection both expands the field of masculinities and develops new thinking about important issues in feminist and critical race theories. The topics covered include how norms of masculinity influence the behavior of policemen, firefighters, and international soldiers on television and in the real world; employment discrimination against masculine cocktail waitresses and all transgendered employees; the legal treatment of fathers in the U.S. and the ways unauthorized migrant fathers use the dangers of border crossing to boost their masculine esteem; how Title IX fails to curtail the masculinity of sport; the racist assumptions behind the prison rape debate; the surprising roots of homophobia in Jamaican dancehall music; and the contradictions of the legal debate over women veiling in Turkey. Ultimately, the book argues that multidimensional masculinities theory can change how law is interpreted and applied.