OVW Grant Program

Training and Technical Assistance to
OVW LAV Grantees

Overview of Project:
The Violence Against Women Act of 2005 recognized the need to protect crime victims’ rights in the criminal justice system. While the criminal justice system has similarities to the civil justice system, it is different in critical ways, particularly when it comes to legal standing and enforcement of victims’ rights. Victims have unique statutory and constitutional rights that attach to the criminal justice process, separate and apart from the protections and remedies available in the civil justice system. In fact, more than thirty states have constitutional amendments affording victims’ rights in the criminal case, and every state in the Union has statutes and rules affording such rights. The rights provided include rights to protection from the accused, privacy, and an opportunity to be heard at various hearings, including release. Unfortunately, all too frequently these rights are unrecognized or ignored in the criminal justice system. The National Crime Victim Law Institute (NCVLI) has the goal of changing this, and ensuring that all victims have the opportunity to exercise their rights in the criminal justice process in the manner that they choose. To help achieve this goal, NCVLI received a grant from the Office on Violence Against Women to provide legal technical assistance and training to OVW LAV grantees who help victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking, and dating violence. The goal of the Project is to help fill a gap in legal services provided to these victims by enhancing service providers’ knowledge and skills regarding victims’ rights in the criminal justice system.

Project Components:
Under the grant, NCVLI will host conference call trainings throughout the year, as well as participate in trainings offered by the Victim Rights Law Center and the American Bar Association’s Commission on Domestic Violence, exclusively to LAV Grantees. With these trainings, NCVLI hopes to facilitate discussion and analysis of the complex legal issues and challenges facing violence against women victims. NCVLI will also provide technical assistance on legal issues facing victims in the criminal justice process. Some ways NCVLI may help include legal research in response to emerging issues, position papers on victims’ rights, provision of model pleadings and briefs, and integration of victims’ rights enforcement into training curriculum.

How to Request Technical Assistance:
OVW LAV grantees can submit requests for technical assistance by clicking here and filling out a brief request form online. Some sample types of issues NCVLI can assist with include:

Defense Seeks to Discover Victim’s Personal Diary
The defense sought to discover a Maryland victim’s personal diary, which contained information not relevant to the case and of a highly personal nature. NCVLI provided the requester with case summaries from across the United States explaining the circumstances under which the diary may be discoverable or used at trial, and the procedure the court would likely use to determine whether portions of the diary must be turned over.

Modification of a No-Contact Order
A Florida victim received a no-contact order against defendant in connection with criminal charges brought against him relating to non-partner domestic abuse. Subsequent to the entry of the no-contact order, the victim gave birth to a child whose paternity was undetermined. Defendant moved the criminal court to modify the no-contact order to allow visitation with the child, which the court granted. After being contacted by the victim’s attorney, NCVLI provided legal research supporting the position that the victim did not have to allow defendant access to her child because, among other reasons, the criminal court did not have jurisdiction over the victim.

Stay of Civil Proceedings Pending Criminal Trial
A California victim filed a civil domestic violence restraining order action against the defendant. Defendant was also the subject of a criminal case against the victim for domestic abuse. Defendant scheduled a deposition of the victim in the civil case. NCVLI provided research to the victim’s attorney regarding the victim’s best argument to move to quash the deposition or postpone it until after the criminal matter was disposed of.

A Project funded by the National Crime Victim Law Institute through a cooperative agreement with the Office on Violence Against Women, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice (Grant. No. 2008-TA-AX-K010).

OVW LAV Grantees - Request Technical Assistance Here

Past Trainings

December 2009: NCVLI hosted a teleconference entitled “Rape Shield: Using Victims’ Rights Laws to Enforce Privacy Rights.” The training featured Keli Luther, Senior Attorney of Arizona Voice for Crime Victims legal clinic, Meg Garvin, Executive Director of NCVLI, and Alison Wilkinson, who leads the OVW LAV grant at NCVLI. The teleconference discussed the current state of law with regard to rape shield protections. Although every state now has some rape shield protections, very few rape shield provisions explicitly allow the victim to be present at the rape shield hearing, and none allow the victim to appeal from an adverse rape shield ruling. Keli, Meg, and Alison discussed ways in which crime victims’ rights laws could be leveraged to allow victim participation in rape shield proceedings and create avenues for appellate review. An audio recording of the training will be available soon.

November 2009: NCVLI was asked to host a training at Kansas Legal Services in Topeka, Kansas on crime victims rights. Meg Garvin, Executive Director of NCVLI, and Alison Wilkinson, who leads the OVW LAV grant at NCVLI, presented a training entitled “Crime Victims’ Rights in Kansas.” The training included an overview of victims’ rights across the United States, as well as a discussion of how Kansas law compared to the national landscape and what could be done to advance victims’ rights in Kansas. The training was rounded out with a discussion of ethics issues that may arise in cases involving crime victims’ rights.

September 2009: NCVLI hosted a teleconference entitled "Quashing Subpoenas in Criminal Proceedings: Enforcing a Victim’s Right to Privacy." The training featured Heidi Nestel, Executive Director of Utah Crime Victims Legal Clinic, and Alison Wilkinson, who leads the OVW LAV grant at NCVLI. Alison and Heidi discussed key privacy issues that confront victims in criminal proceedings pre-trial, such as: What Constitutional and statutory privacy protections are afforded victims of crimes? When must private records and documents (such as school records) be disclosed? What do you do if a third party is served with a subpoena requesting the victims’ private records? What must the defendant show before he is allowed access to the victim’s private records? Heidi also provided valuable insight into some of the privacy issues she has seen during her years practicing victims’ rights law in Utah, and discussed how she has tackled these issues in daily practice. A follow-up training concentrating on privacy issues in more detail will be coming early this winter. An audio recording of the training will be available soon.

Training and Technical Assistance toOVW LAV Grantees

OVW LAV Grantees - Request Technical Assistance Here

Training and Technical Assistance to
OVW LAV Grantees