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Dad On Duty: The Potential Of Paid Parental Leave Laws, Laura E. Bates

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

The United States is the only industrialized country in the world that does not guarantee its citizens paid parental leave. While the Family and Medical Leave Act provides some employees up to twelve weeks of unpaid leave, its limitations leave most American parents without adequate support. In the absence of a national paid parental leave system, states are stepping in, enacting laws that provide fully or partially paid parental leave. Private employers are also offering paid parental leave in increasing numbers. Despite these efforts, only 27 percent of private-sector American employees have access to paid parental leave.

Men taking paternity …

Decreasing Work-Related Stress And Burnout In Advanced Practice Clinicians, Laura Vasquez

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Scholarly Projects

Background

Advanced practice clinicians (APCs) face ongoing job-related stress and career burnout. Work-related stress and burnout affect healthcare quality, safety, and patient satisfaction, yet evidence specific to job-related stress and career burnout from outpatient medical facilities in the South Texas region remains limited.

Purpose

A quality improvement (QI) project was implemented to decrease work-related stress and burnout among APCs working in an outpatient medical facility in the South Texas region.

Methods

Project participants included family nurse practitioners (FNPs) (n=7) and physician assistants (PAs) (n=4). Data was collected between January 2026 and March 2026. An intervention was implemented which included engagement …

Sauce For The Gander: The False Symmetry Of Myths And Stereotypes Against The Accused In Sexual Assault Trials, Janine Benedet

Dalhousie Law Journal

As sexual assault laws evolved to be expressed in sex-neutral language, so too have arguments relating to myths and stereotypes in the context of sexual offences. This article evaluates the argument that myths and stereotypes, traditionally a reflection of systemic discrimination against female complainants in rape trials, also operate against male accused. Understood correctly, this trend repackages anti-feminist backlash to early equality reform efforts, ultimately working to revive the belief that women’s accusations of sexual assault are often false. The Supreme Court of Canada’s decision in R v Kruk affirms that this historical context matters when it comes to claims …

Unseen Labour, Unmatched Impact: Struggles And Strategies Of Supervising Lawyers In Canadian Clinical Law Programs, Sarah Buhler, Gemma Smyth

Dalhousie Law Journal

Supervision has been described as the “beating heart” and the “core” of clinical legal education. Yet lawyers who supervise law students in clinical programs have challenging and poorly understood roles within Canadian legal education. This article analyzes interviews with lawyers who supervise students in Canadian law-school affiliated legal clinics. Supervising lawyers describe the tensions between their roles as lawyers, supervisors and mentors, university or non-profit employees, social justice advocates, members of law societies, and clinic team members. These tensions often exist within an environment of lower pay, poor job security, substandard treatment by colleagues, and inadequate training. Despite these challenges, …

Lost At Sea: The Managerial Exclusion After Casinos Du Québec, Brian Langille

Dalhousie Law Journal

Is the managerial exclusion constitutionally dead or alive? In Casinos du Québec the Supreme Court of Canada somehow managed to make this a mind-boggling question. The Court also managed to bizarrely but blithely establish a higher threshold test for freedom of association violations than for unconstitutional intrusions upon other Charter freedoms. This comment addresses both of these shocking results but also seeks to go further and show how the Court’s entire freedom of association adventure is not only scary, but also unnecessary.

L’exclusion des postes de direction est-elle constitutionnellement morte ou vivante? Dans l’affaire Casinos du Québec, la Cour suprême …

Healthcare Discrimination Under The Canadian Charter Of Rights And Freedoms, Mélisande Charbonneau-Gravel, Sébastien Jodoin, Siobhan O’Connell

Dalhousie Law Journal

This paper explores the role that the Canadian Charter of Rights & Freedoms could and should play in addressing and redressing discrimination in the context of healthcare in Canada. Drawing on landmark as well as recent jurisprudence, we analyze how sections 7 and 15 of the Charter apply to three types of healthcare discrimination: (1) lack of access to healthcare and health services; (2) lower quality of services, and attitudes and biases faced in diagnosis and treatment; and (3) physical, verbal, psychological, and sexual abuse experienced by patients. Our analysis highlights the ongoing, problematic nature of the prevailing interpretations of …

Table Of Contents, Anthony G. Amsterdam, Randy A. Hertz

Trial Manual for the Defense of Criminal Cases

TABLE OF CONTENTS
PART ONE: INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW (Chapters 1-2)
PART TWO: INITIAL STAGES OF THE CASE THROUGH ARRAIGNMENT (Chapters 3-16)
PART THREE: PROCEEDINGS BETWEEN ARRAIGNMENT AND TRIAL (Chapters 17-31)
PART FOUR: TRIAL (Chapters 32-46)
PART FIVE: POST-TRIAL (Chapters 47-49)

Chapter 6 - Interviewing The Client, Anthony G. Amsterdam, Randy A. Hertz

Trial Manual for the Defense of Criminal Cases

The first interview with a criminal client is probably the most important exchange that counsel will have with the client. It largely shapes the client’s judgment of the lawyer. Any initial impressions counsel makes may be indelible. At the least, this interview will strongly affect all future dealings between the two. The lawyer’s primary objective in the initial interview is to establish an attorney-client relationship grounded on mutual confidence, trust, and respect.

Chapter 6'S Interview Checklist § 6.15, Anthony G. Amsterdam, Randy A. Hertz

Trial Manual for the Defense of Criminal Cases

The following checklist covers most of what the lawyer will have to learn from a client in order to develop an effective defense at all stages of a criminal case from first contact through trial. It models a thorough interviewing process; more than a single interview will ordinarily be needed to gather all of the information it includes. When the charge is relatively minor, less extensive fact-gathering may be adequate. But counsel will do well to assume at the outset that all of the subjects flagged by this checklist need to be on the agenda; decisions to curtail coverage should …

Chapter 5 - State-Paid Assistance For The Defense: Obtaining State Funding For Counsel’S Time And For Defense Services, Anthony G. Amsterdam, Randy A. Hertz

Trial Manual for the Defense of Criminal Cases

As explained in § 2.3.4.2 supra, indigent defendants have a Sixth Amendment right to court-appointed counsel in all felony cases (Gideon v. Wainwright, 372 U.S. 335 (1963); Johnson v. Zerbst, 304 U.S. 458 (1938)) and on any charges of misdemeanors or petty offenses for which a term of imprisonment is going to be imposed as a result of conviction, “‘even for a brief period’” (Alabama v. Shelton, 535 U.S. 654, 657 (2002)), including cases in which the court imposes “a suspended sentence that may ‘end up in the actual deprivation of a person’s liberty’” (id. at 658) in the event …

Chapter 4'S Bail Questionnaire § 4.5, Anthony G. Amsterdam, Randy A. Hertz

Trial Manual for the Defense of Criminal Cases

The following questionnaire is designed principally for counsel’s use in obtaining from a client information pertinent to the amount of bail that should be set. Counsel can, however, easily convert the questionnaire into a form that can be notarized and submitted to a magistrate or judge in support of an application for bail in a manageable amount or for reduction of bail or for release on nominal bail or on recognizance, as is appropriate. Of course, caution must be observed not to use the form in this fashion if a client’s answers may supply incriminating information or investigative leads that …

Chapter 9 - Defense Investigation, Anthony G. Amsterdam, Randy A. Hertz

Trial Manual for the Defense of Criminal Cases

Investigation is counsel’s principal means for obtaining and vetting the information s/he needs. Although there are other fact-gathering tools – formal discovery proceedings (see Chapter 18); motions practice (see Chapter 19); plea-bargaining discussions (see Chapter 15); informal interchanges with a prosecutor (see § 7.2.2 supra) – they tend to be less reliable and comprehensive than independent defense spadework: meticulously searching the streets, paper and electronic files and records, and the internet. One key component of defense investigation, the interview with the client, is discussed in Chapter 6. The following aspects of investigation are discussed in the present chapter: locating and …

Chapter 14 - Arraignment And Defensive Pleas, Anthony G. Amsterdam, Randy A. Hertz

Trial Manual for the Defense of Criminal Cases

Arraignment is the stage of proceedings when a misdemeanor or felony defendant ordinarily appears for the first time in the court that has jurisdiction to try the case. The defendant has been notified of the arraignment date as indicated in § 13.2 supra.

Chapter 15 - Guilty Pleas: Preparing For And Conducting Plea Negotiations; Counseling The Client About A Plea Offer, Anthony G. Amsterdam, Randy A. Hertz

Trial Manual for the Defense of Criminal Cases

This chapter examines the processes by which counsel prepares for and conducts plea negotiations with the prosecutor and advises the client about a bargained plea. The chapter leads off with a discussion (in § 15.2) of the relative roles of counsel and client in deciding whether the client should plead guilty rather contesting a criminal charge. Part B (§§ 15.3-15.7) discusses the benefits and costs to a defendant of resolving a criminal charge by pleading guilty. It then reviews the factors that counsel should consider in developing an advantageous plea bargain to propose to the prosecutor or in assessing a …

Chapter 21 - Removing The Case From The Criminal Court’S Docket: Motions For Diversion, Acd, Or Stetting; Transfer To Juvenile Court; Deferred Adjudication, Anthony G. Amsterdam, Randy A. Hertz

Trial Manual for the Defense of Criminal Cases

As noted in §§ 2.3.6 and 8.2.2 supra, many localities have more or less formal procedures for “diverting” criminal cases out of the system. Such diversion procedures go by different names in different jurisdictions (including “adjournment in contemplation of dismissal” (“ACD”) and “stetting”)

Chapter 16 - Representing Clients Who Are Mentally Ill Or Intellectually Disabled, Anthony G. Amsterdam, Randy A. Hertz

Trial Manual for the Defense of Criminal Cases

There are, however, some clients who are not competent to make decisions affecting their own welfare; and counsel may need to take special measures in these cases. If counsel reasonably believes that mental illness or an intellectual disability has so severely “diminish[ed]” the client’s “capacity to make adequately considered decisions in connection with the representation . . . [that] a normal client-lawyer relationship with the client” cannot be maintained, and if counsel furthermore “reasonably believes” that the client “is at risk of substantial physical, financial or other harm unless action is taken and [that the client] cannot adequately act in …

Chapter 28 - Defense Motions To Advance Or For A Continuance; Motions To Dismiss For Want Of Prosecution; Speedy Trial Motions, Anthony G. Amsterdam, Randy A. Hertz

Trial Manual for the Defense of Criminal Cases

Statutes or court rules establish criminal terms of court, at which the principal criminal business is done. Local practice may or may not allow the handling of particular phases of criminal cases out of term, such as the hearing and disposition of pretrial motions or the entry of a guilty plea and reference of the defendant for presentence investigation. Magistrates and justices of the peace ordinarily sit continually throughout the year; and in the courts of record, matters that are handled by ancillary procedures such as habeas corpus are never confined to the criminal terms.

Chapter 30 - Retaining And Working With Expert Consultants And Potential Expert Witnesses, Anthony G. Amsterdam, Randy A. Hertz

Trial Manual for the Defense of Criminal Cases

There is a host of types of experts that may be useful in a criminal case. For some examples, see § 5.2 seventh paragraph supra.

Chapter 29 - Defense Trial Preparation, Anthony G. Amsterdam, Randy A. Hertz

Trial Manual for the Defense of Criminal Cases

Defense trial preparation culminates in the selection of the witnesses and evidence that will be presented at the trial (and, where applicable, at any pretrial evidentiary motions hearings such as suppression hearings (see Chapters 24-27 supra) and hearings on motions in limine (see § 17.5.3 supra)). Counsel must be wide-ranging in the search for sources of proof but highly selective in what s/he actually puts on at pretrial hearings and at trial. It is vital that s/he have an integrated theory of defense and that the evidence be tightly organized so that the defense theory will come across clearly in …

Chapter 26 - Motions To Suppress Confessions, Admissions, And Other Statements Of The Defendant, Anthony G. Amsterdam, Randy A. Hertz

Trial Manual for the Defense of Criminal Cases

The doctrines described in this chapter supply grounds for suppressing not only confessions but any statement by the defendant – “whether inculpatory or exculpatory – that the prosecution may seek to introduce at trial” (Rhode Island v. Innis, 446 U.S. 291, 301 n.5 (1980) (emphasis in original); see also Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 476-77 (1966)).

Chapter 34 - Trial: General Characteristics, Anthony G. Amsterdam, Randy A. Hertz

Trial Manual for the Defense of Criminal Cases

Ordinarily a criminal trial cannot be held in absentia. See Drope v. Missouri, 420 U.S. 162, 182 (1975). The defendant “has a right to be present at all important stages of trial” (McKaskle v. Wiggins, 465 U.S. 168, 178 (1984) (dictum)). In most jurisdictions the right derives from several sources. It is often conferred by statute or rule of court (see, e.g., Crosby v. United States, 506 U.S. 255 (1993)); it is held to be protected by the common state constitutional guarantees of due process and of confrontation; and it is protected by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth …

Chapter 37 - Handling Prosecution Witnesses, Anthony G. Amsterdam, Randy A. Hertz

Trial Manual for the Defense of Criminal Cases

The right to a “searching and wide-ranging cross-examination” is widely recognized by the courts (State v. Thaden, 210 Neb. 622, 627, 316 N.W.2d 317, 321 (1982)).

Chapter 36 - Evidentiary Issues That Are Likely To Arise At Trial, Anthony G. Amsterdam, Randy A. Hertz

Trial Manual for the Defense of Criminal Cases

General rules of evidence applicable in civil cases are also controlling in criminal cases. This chapter’s discussion of evidentiary matters will be limited to a few of the most important problems specific to criminal trials.

Chapter 43 - Closing Arguments, Anthony G. Amsterdam, Randy A. Hertz

Trial Manual for the Defense of Criminal Cases

As a general matter, the closing arguments of the attorneys recapitulate the theories of each party and attempt to justify the inferences and conclusions that each feels should be drawn from the evidence. In almost all jurisdictions, the prosecutor argues first and defense counsel second. In some jurisdictions the prosecutor is always permitted to rebut and thereby have the last word; in other jurisdictions the prosecutor is permitted to rebut only if the defense has presented evidence. Some judges will permit surrebuttal argument by the defense when the prosecutor has obviously sandbagged and reserved most of his or her substantive …

Chapter 47 - Postverdict Proceedings, Anthony G. Amsterdam, Randy A. Hertz

Trial Manual for the Defense of Criminal Cases

Once the verdict is recorded, the court may be permitted to impose sentence immediately, or to proceed immediately to a more or less formal sentencing hearing, or to defer sentencing with or without ordering a presentence investigation.

Index Of Subjects, Anthony G. Amsterdam, Randy A. Hertz

Trial Manual for the Defense of Criminal Cases

References are to section numbers.

Chapter 39 - Presenting The Case For The Defense, Anthony G. Amsterdam, Randy A. Hertz

Trial Manual for the Defense of Criminal Cases

In all jurisdictions, a trial court’s exclusion of relevant, material evidence proffered by a defendant is reversible error under applicable statutes or rules of court or as a matter of common-law practice. See, e.g., United States v. Barrow, 109 F.4th 521 (D.C. Cir. 2024); United States v. Yarbrough, 527 F.3d 1092 (10th Cir. 2008); State v. Santoro, 2024 MT 136, 417 Mont. 92, 551 P.3d 822 (2024); Commonwealth v. Molina, 2019 WL 2323825 (Pa. Super. 2019); Brown v. State, 227 So.3d 185 (Fla. App. 2017); State v. G.R.M., 272 Or. App. 737, 358 P.3d 301 (2015). It may also violate …

Table Of Cases And Other Authorities, Anthony G. Amsterdam, Randy A. Hertz

Trial Manual for the Defense of Criminal Cases

References are to section numbers.

Chapter 48 - Sentencing, Anthony G. Amsterdam, Randy A. Hertz

Trial Manual for the Defense of Criminal Cases

In most jurisdictions, statutes or court rules authorize – and in some jurisdictions they require – a presentence investigation following conviction of some or all offenders. The investigation is ordered by the judge either on the court’s own initiative or upon application of either party after a verdict or finding of guilt or a plea of guilty. It is performed by an agency of the court, usually the probation department. Probation officers, ordinarily professionally trained in social work, interview the defendant and the defendant’s family, neighbors, employers, teachers, and minister. They collect the defendant’s previous court, juvenile court, prison, school, …

Pride And Portrayal: The Effects Of Gender Identity And Generational Cohort On Lgbtq+ Perceptions Of Media Coverage, Dang H. Le

Communication Theses - Archive

Public debates over LGBTQ+ issues have intensified in the United States in recent years, placing news media at the center of conflicts over representation, fairness, and credibility. While a substantial body of research has analyzed how LGBTQ+ people are portrayed in news coverage, far less attention has been paid to how LGBTQ+ audiences themselves evaluate that coverage. Understanding these perceptions is increasingly important as declining trust in journalism intersects with political polarization and ongoing policy debates surrounding LGBTQ+ rights. This study examines how generational cohorts and gender identity shape LGBTQ+ audiences’ perceptions of news coverage quality, perceived media hostility, and …