Students will assist court-appointed attorneys who represent indigent defendants in criminal cases with legal research and discovery-related tasks. Students will review phone and video evidence and perform legal research. Students will be matched by CAPDS to an individual case and attorney on an as-needed basis during the academic year, in support of CAPDS’ mission to improve the performance of court-appointed attorneys in criminal cases.
Organization
Capitol Area Private Defender Service
CAPDS enhances the quality of representation provided to indigent adult criminal defendants in Travis County. CAPDS achieves this by establishing meaningful standards for quality representation, ensuring appointed counsel exceeds these standards, overseeing the work of appointed counsel, and providing educational and mentoring services to support those appointed to represent indigent clients.
Project Details
- Website
- http://www.capds.org
- Project Start Date
October 2016
- Approximate hours of work requested
- 5-20 hours, depending on case assignment
- Training
- Training will be provided in an initial meeting with the supervising attorney; additional meetings will be scheduled as needed for planning and to answer questions
- Skills used
- Discovery review; legal research/writing
- Project location
- At supervising attorney’s office (discovery) or other locations at the student’s discretion (research)
- Number of student volunteers requested
- 5
- Class year preference
- 1L, 2L, 3L, LLM
- Required skills
- Language: Spanish helpful but not necessary
- To Apply
- Submit email stating interest and any language skills to Sarah Sedgwick at ssedgwick@law.utexas.edu; applications received by noon on Friday, October 7 will receive priority consideration