Panel alert: (1) upcoming trainings, (2) OSPD listservs on the Racial Justice Act and the Batson bill, (3) compensation claims update.

Quar-WIN-tining: An Overview of Noteworthy Panel Victories During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Litigating during the COVID-19 pandemic has not been easy. Despite the many challenges, FDAP panel attorneys have obtained dozens of significant victories for their clients since the start of shelter-at-home policies in March. This webinar will highlight several of those criminal and dependency case victories, both published and unpublished. Please join us as we celebrate some of your recent successes, honor your tireless efforts during these most unprecedented of times, and get inspiration for issues to raise in our future cases.

When: October 22, 2020 from 10 to 11 a.m.
Where: Zoom
Registration: Register here.

The training will qualify for one hour of participatory MCLE credit and one hour of appellate and/or criminal specialization.

FDAP Annual In-Person Training Replaced With Webinars

In light of the continuing COVID-19 pandemic, we will not be holding our in-person all-day training previously scheduled for February 2021. Instead, we will continue presenting a series of single-issue webinars we began last spring. The earliest FDAP would host an in-person event would be fall of 2021. As with everything these days, stay tuned …

OSPD Listservs for Racial Justice Act and Better-than-Batson Bill

On September 30, 2020, Governor Newsom signed two groundbreaking criminal justice bills, AB 3070, the “Better than Batson” bill, and AB 2542, the Racial Justice Act. Both bills create enormous opportunities for creative litigation at every level of a criminal case. To facilitate such litigation, and in keeping with its mission to provide assistance and training to public defender offices and appointed counsel in criminal and delinquency cases (Gov. Code, § 15420), the Office of the State Public Defender has created two listservs, one for each of these new statutes.

Please note that membership in these listservs is limited to those engaged in the active representation of criminal defendants. If you have any questions, email the OSPD at listservreg@ospd.ca.gov.

Click here to join either of the OSPD listservs

Update on Claims

We have two announcements about compensation claims.

Claim Time for Supplemental Reply Briefs on the Reply Brief Line 8

The appellate projects and the Judicial Council have agreed that time spent drafting a supplemental reply brief should be claimed on the claims form line for reply briefs, line 8, instead of the supplemental brief line. This will create consistency throughout the state. The statewide claims manual has been updated. (See p. 33-34.) Time preparing supplemental opening briefs should continue to be claimed on the supplemental brief line, 9.

COVID-19 Extra Interim Claims Extended to End of Fiscal Year, June 30, 2021

Last Spring, the Judicial Council approved a temporary policy permitting additional interim claims to help ease the financial burden of COVID-19. As the original announcement stated, this policy was to run through December. The Judicial Council has now agreed that this policy will remain in place through the end of the fiscal year, i.e. June 30, 2021.