Legal Guides and Toolkits for Lawyers Working with Children – Youth Justice Legal Centre (2021)
Summary:
Links to the Youth Justice Legal Centre website, which contains relevant toolkits and guidance for lawyers working with children.
Description:
The Youth Justice Legal Centre have produced a series of legal guides to help you navigate the different rules, regimes, and principles in various youth justice areas. The guides encourage best practice when representing children in the criminal justice system.
Turning 18:This guide deals with the impact of turning 18 on young people in the criminal justice system where they are dealt with for offences committed as a child, and where they offend during young adulthood (18 to 25).
Intermediaries For Child Defendants: This guide helps to identify whether a child defendant needs an intermediary and how to apply for one.
Child Criminal Exploitation: This guide is intended to assist criminal practitioners representing children who have been exploited and are charged with offences arising out of that exploitation.
Criminal Behaviour Orders: This guide is to assist lawyers representing children who are subject to an application for a Criminal Behaviour Order (CBO).
Trauma Informed Lawyering: This guide explains what trauma informed lawyering in the youth justice system is and why it matters.
Criminal Practice Directions: This guide assists lawyers representing children in the criminal courts and explains how the Criminal Practice Directions can support in this context.
Effective participation and fitness to plead: This guide explains the legal framework for fitness to plead and effective participation in relation to children going through the criminal justice system. The guide highlights the key points in a case where concerns about the child- ability to effectively participate arise, and gives practical advice on the work that needs to be done by the defense at each stage.
Instructing an Expert: A toolkit for lawyers and expert witnesses in criminal cases involving children: This illustrated Toolkit provides guidance on how to Instruct an Expert in criminal cases involving a child defendant. The Toolkit outlines the relevant legal framework when using an expert witness and sets out the necessary considerations at each stage of the process.