Lesson
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Assistant District Attorneys
Learning preview · Local demonstration progress only · No CLE credit awarded
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Before you begin: Assistant District Attorneys
Course approval, credit value, and attorney eligibility are unverified. This preview uses simulated attendance and issues no real credit, certificate, or email.
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About this program
Nia-Tai Fung and Mehdi Essmidi join Eugene Toussaint and David Ourlicht to examine how cases enter and move through a district attorney’s office. Their experience in Queens and Bronx prosecution informs the discussion of officer and witness interviews, complaint drafting, supervision, mitigation and the transfer of responsibility between bureaus.
The conversation repeatedly asks what the available evidence supports. Statements, body-camera recordings, assault allegations, a disputed roadside encounter and orders of protection expose the need to distinguish assumptions from facts. The companion coursebook separates charging discretion, pleading, admissibility and trial proof, and develops the legal issues through eight practice chapters.
The 70-page edition includes an element-and-source chart, complaint and supporting deposition, arrest and statement records, a protection-order application with opposition and proposed terms, discovery and conferral papers, distinct case calendars and a completed handoff. Problem K provides a fresh file to assess before reading the reasoned answer. The additional worked files and dated legal updates supplement the recording.
What you will learn
- Separate charging discretion from probable cause, pleading sufficiency, admissibility, and trial proof.
- Build an element-and-source chart for a misdemeanor information and identify facts requiring further investigation.
- Analyze an arrest, I-card communication, and custodial statement using the correct legal standards.
- Prepare a focused request concerning a temporary order of protection and communicate appropriately with witnesses.
- Apply current discovery, readiness, and bail rules without treating office practices as statutory requirements.
- Use independent investigation and careful preparation to reduce factual error and untested assumptions.
Who this course is for
Prosecutors, defense attorneys, and lawyers reviewing New York charging decisions and early case development.
Preparation
A basic understanding of arrest, arraignment, and discovery will help. Use a fictional complaint and a source list to test the discussion.
Course information
- Practice focus:
- An evidence-based intake decision and reliable case handoff
- Format:
- Recorded discussion with companion written study
- Producer:
- Attorneys with Swag Learning Center
- Learning partnership:
- Latino Lawyers Association of Queens County
- Materials:
- 70-page coursebook · Participant review edition 4 · 2026-10-09 · Quality revision Q1 · 2026-10-12
- Proposed CLE request:
- Proposed: 2.0 CLE credits · Areas of Professional Practice
Approval not verified · No credit awarded
Before you watch
The course focuses on New York intake and early criminal proceedings, including local criminal court practice. Office procedures vary. The coursebook identifies later legal developments separately from the recorded discussion and supplies worked files applying the dated legal standards.
The recording and written materials are educational resources. Use current authority and the facts of a particular matter before applying the discussion in practice. The intended audience is not a determination of CLE eligibility.
Course materials and practice exercise
Materials and study guide
Participant review edition 4 · 2026-10-09 · Quality revision Q1 · 2026-10-12 · T1 episode-scope correction · 2026-10-13 · 70 pages. Available to read, save, or print.
Open Assistant District Attorneys coursebook (PDF) ↗The 70-page coursebook includes eight chapters, four substantive faculty profiles, connected practice files, a fresh application problem, reusable worksheets and linked authorities. Follow File A through charging, disclosure and release; compare File P’s evidence, request, opposition and proposed order; and use the I, S, R and H files to test arrest communication, statements, roadside analysis and handoff. The written edition’s statutes and authorities were initially checked October 9, 2026, with quality-review corrections dated October 12, 2026. Quality revision Q1, October 12, 2026, updates faculty biographies and corrects the written examples and references. Credit and approval status are unchanged. The T1 correction removes an inaccurate reference to the episode’s opening; legal analysis and page numbering are unchanged.
Coursebook chapters
These are written chapters. The Segments tab follows the episode timeline.
- The public prosecutor’s judgment — pp. 9–12
- Intake, elements, and accusatory instruments — pp. 13–20
- Arrests, I-cards, and statements — pp. 21–26
- Protection orders and witness communication — pp. 27–33
- The roadside hypothetical: analyze each transition — pp. 34–39
- Discovery, readiness, and the 2025 amendments — pp. 40–50
- Arraignment, mitigation, and parallel proceedings — pp. 51–54
- Reliable preparation across an imperfect system — pp. 55–59
Questions for closer study
- Map the route of a case through one office structure described in the recording. Who writes the complaint, retains the file, investigates further, approves a bail request and receives a defense mitigation submission?
- For an assault allegation, separate the proposed charge from the supporting observations. Who witnessed each act, what injury evidence is available, and which facts need direct confirmation rather than repetition of an officer’s summary?
- Build a statement chronology showing the location, custody status, handcuffing, warnings, questions and answers. Identify the recordings and witnesses needed to check the account and the admissibility questions left unresolved.
- For a request concerning exclusion from a home, list the property-interest evidence, alleged safety risks and information from the complaining witness. Separate those facts from the hearing procedure and governing legal standard that counsel would need to verify.
- Revisit the roadside hypothetical using only facts actually supplied. Which observations are disputed or assumed, what additional evidence would help, and how might a supervisor evaluate a proposed charging decision alongside any mitigation?
An evidence-based intake decision and reliable case handoff
Follow File A through Chapters 2, 6 and 7, identifying the source for each allegation and the investigation still needed. Compare File P’s protection-order request with its evidence, opposition and operative terms. Use the completed H-file handoff to check what another attorney would need, then decide Problem K before reading its answer. Keep the episode’s roadside facts separate from the additional fictional hearing exercise.
Study prompts support discussion; they do not establish CLE approval.