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Trials, Instructions and Procedures
Learning preview · Local demonstration progress only · No CLE credit awarded
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Before you begin: Trials, Instructions and Procedures
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
Trial preparation begins with the person facing prosecution. Felipe Garcia, Eugene Toussaint, Everett Hopkins, and Jubril Oladiran discuss how proof, sentencing exposure, collateral consequences, and everyday burdens affect a client’s decision. The conversation then follows the courtroom sequence, examining how a lawyer’s choices at one stage can shape the next.
The coursebook develops that sequence through an integrated fictional Rivera file. Source records support a solved proof ledger, individual jury questioning, challenges, evidentiary requests, an opening, answered examinations, and specific motions. The instruction chapter supplies operative charge language, competing arguments, and a ruling. Summation and jury-note examples return to the evidence actually admitted, keeping an attractive theory separate from a supportable one.
A separate Dunn problem asks readers to apply the method without relying on the solved case. It presents five issues, a changed fact, and a reasoned scoring guide. The written examples are editorial teaching materials, not accounts of faculty cases. The eleven-segment episode timeline follows the October 13 chapter guide; the ten coursebook chapters are independently organized instructional units. The existing Skills-credit proposal and on-demand eligibility restrictions remain in the Credit tab.
What you will learn
- Prepare a reasoned client recommendation that separates the charge, proof, available disposition, and collateral consequences.
- Conduct individual voir dire, distinguish cause from peremptory challenges, and make a supported Batson record.
- Request a precise prior-act ruling and design an opening consistent with the expected admissible proof.
- Build direct and cross-examination sequences with proper foundations and a defined stopping point.
- Make a specific sufficiency motion and support instructions with the trial record.
- Deliver an evidence-based summation and respond appropriately to jury questions.
Who this course is for
Criminal defense attorneys and litigators developing New York trial-preparation skills.
Preparation
A working familiarity with a criminal charge and the role of a jury will help. Use a fictional charge or anonymized matter for the exercises.
Course information
- Practice focus:
- Keep the client’s decision, admissible evidence, requested ruling, and preserved record connected throughout the trial.
- Format:
- Recorded discussion with companion written study
- Producer:
- Attorneys with Swag Learning Center
- Learning partnership:
- Latino Lawyers Association of Queens County
- Materials:
- 64-page coursebook · Participant review edition 2 · 2026-10-10 · Quality revision Q1 · 2026-10-12
- Proposed CLE request:
- Proposed: 1.5 CLE credits · Skills
Approval not verified · No credit awarded
Before you watch
The discussion includes competing courtroom approaches and informal explanations of legal standards. Use the governing law and jury instructions when developing an actual trial plan.
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 · 2026-10-10 · Quality revision Q1 · 2026-10-12 · 64 pages. Available to read, save, or print.
Open Trials, Instructions and Procedures coursebook (PDF) ↗The 64-page review edition 2 contains ten chapters, supplied Rivera records, completed trial work products, operative instruction language, and a twenty-point Dunn application exercise with a reasoned answer. Citations, a linked contents page, and the PDF outline support navigation. The original written legal review was dated October 10, 2026; Q1 reference checks and corrections are dated October 12, 2026.
Coursebook chapters
These are written chapters. The Segments tab follows the episode timeline.
- The client’s trial decision — pp. 8–12
- Build the proof before the performance — pp. 13–22
- Select an impartial jury lawfully — pp. 23–27
- Resolve the boundaries of evidence — pp. 28–31
- Open with a supportable theory — pp. 32–33
- Examine with a defined purpose — pp. 34–38
- Motions and the defense case — pp. 39–42
- Instructions determine the legal questions — pp. 43–47
- Summation: connect proof and law — pp. 48–51
- Deliberations, verdict, and learning — pp. 52–58
Questions for closer study
- Build a client-decision checklist from the opening discussion. Separate evidentiary strength, sentencing exposure, collateral consequences, and practical burdens.
- Map the trial stages described by Garcia. At which points do the speakers discuss decisions about whether the client will testify?
- Compare a for-cause challenge with a peremptory challenge and identify the concern the Batson discussion raises.
- Rewrite one factual proposition as an open-ended direct-examination question and as a leading cross-examination question. What could go wrong with each?
- Choose one defense theory mentioned in the recording. Identify the evidence and requested instruction that the speakers would need to consider before summation.
Keep the client’s decision, admissible evidence, requested ruling, and preserved record connected throughout the trial.
Read the Rivera source file before the solved work products. Trace one disputed fact through examination, motion, instruction, and summation. Then complete all five Dunn issues and the changed-fact analysis before comparing the twenty-point answer guide.
Study prompts support discussion; they do not establish CLE approval.