Renewed War on Drugs, harsher charging policies, stepped-up criminalization of immigrants — in the current climate, joining the NACDL is more important than ever. Members of NACDL help to support the only national organization working at all levels of government to ensure that the voice of the defense bar is heard.
Take a stand for a fair, rational, and humane criminal legal system
Contact members of congress, sign petitions, and more
Help us continue our fight by donating to NFCJ
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NACDL is committed to enhancing the capacity of the criminal defense bar to safeguard fundamental constitutional rights.
NACDL harnesses the unique perspectives of NACDL members to advocate for policy and practice improvements in the criminal legal system.
NACDL envisions a society where all individuals receive fair, rational, and humane treatment within the criminal legal system.
NACDL’s mission is to serve as a leader, alongside diverse coalitions, in identifying and reforming flaws and inequities in the criminal legal system, and redressing systemic racism, and ensuring that its members and others in the criminal defense bar are fully equipped to serve all accused persons at the highest level.
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To help defenders understand the law, the science, and the messaging underlying these prosecutions, NACDL is offering a FREE, on-demand training videos on Defending Drug Overdose Homicides.
Funded by a grant from Vital Strategies, a public health organization committed to building community oriented, science-backed solutions which promote a sustained reduction in overdose deaths, this on-demand training content is designed to educate and empower defenders to tackle these challenging and difficult cases.
From police drones to body cameras, this webinar guided the criminal defense bar through the functionality, technological limitations, and legal challenges of litigating police technology in criminal cases.
This webinar walked through the recommendations and talk about how to negotiate stronger body camera policies in your jurisdiction, the technical aspects of body cameras, and strategies and tactics for defending clients in body camera jurisdictions.
What strategies can defense lawyers use to challenge this new and invasive investigative technique?
To access this content, you will have to create an NACDL account and complete a short form. You will not have to purchase a membership.
Subject matter experts and litigators from NACDL’s Fourth Amendment Center explain and discuss some of the important digital technology issues that defense counsel will very likely encounter in these cases. The faculty focus on reverse searches, facial recognition, and device searches.
Gain a better understanding of the issues and the science involved in the defense of pregnancy-related charges. This training provides essential information for any lawyer defending a client facing pregnancy-related charges, including those involving drug use, child abuse / endangerment during pregnancy, and abortion related charges. The faculty of medical experts discusses the medical issues and science of these cases.
Professor Wendy Bach and Dr. Mishka Terplan provide information essential for lawyers defending pregnancy-related prosecutions as well as others in the field. They discuss reproductive medicine, use of expert witnesses, and healthcare privacy and HIPAA issues in these cases.
Gain a better understanding of the issues and the science surrounding pregnancy-related prosecutions from criminal defense, medical, and reproductive justice experts.
Experienced litigators discuss RICO and conspiracy charges, accomplice liability and related issues in defending pregnancy-related prosecutions in a post-Dobbs environment.
In the digital age, law enforcement is savvy enough to pull information about your client’s online presence and use it against them. Getting this data and challenging it are skills every modern defense attorney needs. This webinar covers how social media evidence can and cannot be accessed, how it’s authenticated, and viable legal arguments to use and challenge it in your own cases.
In collaboration with Partners For Justice, we are proud to present a webinar on the principles of collaborative defense.
In the United States, disabled individuals are over-represented as both victims of crime and those accused of crimes compared with their non-disabled counterparts. This overrepresentation is even higher for those with disabilities and other marginalized identities. To help legal system professionals address these inequities, NACDL is offering an array of trainings and resources.
In partnership with WACDL and Vital Strategies, NACDL is proud to present this training course on a public health approach to substance use among justice-impacted individuals. This course also explores how defense lawyers can be effective advocates and champions against the harms of criminalization.
They call me a lady lawyer, a pretty sobriquet...for of course to be worthy of so dainty a title, I was bound to maintain a dainty manner as I browbeat my way through the marshes of ignorance and prejudice. - Clara Shortridge Folz
​​​​Automatic License Plate Reader (ALPR) systems are getting more sophisticated and more accessible to police. ALPRs can gather information about people and their movements, but police also use them creatively: creating associations between vehicles and identifying “suspicious” travel patterns.
This webinar from NACDL’s Fourth Amendment Center explores ALPR systems, the cases affecting law on open roads, and how to challenge this evidence in your own case.
