Lesson
Watch the Program – Full Session
Civil Rights Litigation
Learning preview · Local demonstration progress only · No CLE credit awarded
Simulated player and attendance. No real course progress, CLE credit, certificate or email is created.
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Before you begin: Civil Rights Litigation
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
Masai Lord joins Eugene Toussaint and Jack Gomez to discuss evaluating alleged police misconduct from intake through resolution. The conversation connects civil-rights history and the source of an officer’s information with evidence, claim selection, case expenses, damages and the practical decisions facing a client.
The companion coursebook follows a potential claim through preservation, deadlines, pleading, proof, defenses and settlement. It treats arrest, force, prosecution and evidence-related theories separately, examining the defendant, record and remedy rather than assuming that a favorable criminal outcome answers every civil question.
The current edition includes model notices with sworn verifications and service records, a late-notice application, annotated complaint excerpts, count-specific disposition analysis, policy and preservation records, fee and expense calculations, damages exhibits and documented settlement instructions in the fictional case. A connected Queens file and the independent Blake problem make the chronology and financial consequences concrete.
What you will learn
- Select the appropriate defendant, cause of action, and forum for an alleged police wrong.
- Build a claim-specific deadline ledger and identify notice, service, and hearing requirements.
- Distinguish probable cause, favorable termination, fabrication, and independent excessive force.
- Prepare supported allegations and an evidence-preservation plan using a concrete case file.
- Evaluate individual liability, municipal policy, immunity, and indemnification separately.
- Explain litigation expenses, potential damages, and settlement choices through a documented client recommendation.
Who this course is for
Civil litigators and criminal practitioners evaluating potential claims arising from government conduct.
Preparation
Bring a chronology rather than conclusions: the encounter, custody, court dates, disposition, and available recordings. Use fictional or anonymized facts.
Course information
- Practice focus:
- A claim-specific case assessment and client recommendation
- Format:
- Recorded discussion with companion written study
- Producer:
- Attorneys with Swag Learning Center
- Learning partnership:
- Latino Lawyers Association of Queens County
- Materials:
- 65-page coursebook · Participant review edition 2 · 2026-10-09 · Quality revision Q1 · 2026-10-12
- Proposed CLE request:
- Proposed: 1.5 CLE credits · Areas of Professional Practice
Approval not verified · No credit awarded
Before you watch
The recording presents litigation experience; the dated coursebook supplies separate editorial analysis and fictional practice records. Different claims require their own facts, proof and deadline analysis. The eleven-segment timeline follows the October 13 chapter guide; it does not claim to inventory every part of the full recording.
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 2 · 2026-10-09 · Quality revision Q1 · 2026-10-12 · 65 pages. Available to read, save, or print.
Open Civil Rights Litigation coursebook (PDF) ↗The 65-page coursebook contains ten chapters, three substantive faculty profiles, completed claim and evidence files, an independent intake-and-distribution problem, reasoned answers and linked authorities. Its completed-work index directs readers to notices, pleading, preservation, policy, fee and valuation materials. The original edition’s law review was dated October 9, 2026; the Q1 review and corrections are dated October 12, 2026. Later-discovered evidence is distinguished from information available at intake, and the independent files retain their own facts.
Coursebook chapters
These are written chapters. The Segments tab follows the episode timeline.
- Identify the claim — pp. 8–10
- Protect the clocks — pp. 11–18
- Arrest and supported pleading — pp. 19–22
- Encounters, force, and pleas — pp. 23–26
- Prosecution and termination — pp. 27–30
- Fabrication and withheld evidence — pp. 31–33
- Defendants, policy, and defenses — pp. 34–39
- Build and preserve the record — pp. 40–46
- Resources and client decisions — pp. 47–52
- Damages and credible valuation — pp. 53–57
Questions for closer study
- Create a timeline for one example in the recording. Keep the encounter, arrest, arraignment, criminal disposition, notice, and civil filing as separate events.
- For that example, identify the alleged conduct, the possible defendant, the source of the officer’s information, and the evidence still needed.
- What questions would you ask before assuming that suppression or dismissal of a criminal case establishes a civil rights claim?
- List the considerations, beyond possible damages, that the speakers say can affect a decision to litigate or settle.
- Compare an officer’s written account with the body-camera example. Which factual differences would you want a lawyer to examine?
A claim-specific case assessment and client recommendation
Follow the fictional Queens file from the initial claim and deadline ledger to the preservation record and client recommendation. Identify what was known at each decision point, compare the fee and expense records, and explain the proposed distribution and settlement instructions. Then attempt the Blake problem before reading the answer. Do not import the facts of the independent Quinn, Morrow or Rowan examples.
Study prompts support discussion; they do not establish CLE approval.