Ed Mahon’s Post

Survivors and victims of crime across Colorado are at risk of losing vital services. In 2024, the proposed budget for VOCA funding will see another drastic cut from $25 million to just $14 million. ❌ 📣 VOCA funding is essential in victim services agencies meeting the ever-increasing needs. Here' what VOCA funds at The Blue Bench: ✅Crisis intervention, like our Sexual Assault Hotline and Hospital Advocates. ✅Counseling: Our therapists provide accessible, time-limited, trauma-specific individual therapy. We do not bill insurance. Additionally, knowing that sexual assault can have a significant impact on friends and families of survivors, we offer a workshop specifically for friends and families and several other groups and workshops. English and Spanish services are available. ✅Legal advocacy: The Post-Conviction Victim Advocates (PCVA) are available to act as a representative and advocate for a survivor's needs after a case has progressed through the criminal legal process and a perpetrator has been sentenced. ✅Criminal justice and court support: Case Managers offer comprehensive aid and support regardless of whether you choose to report. Their role includes navigating complex legal processes while prioritizing the well-being and dignity of the survivor. Contact or tag your representative and tell them you want them to support #VOCA ➡️ https://lnkd.in/g7uQZUWV

Each year, Clerks of Court help tens of thousands of vulnerable individuals suffering from harmful or threatening interactions apply for protective injunctions. In observance of October as National Domestic Violence Awareness Month, Florida Court Clerks & Comptrollers (FCCC) is recognizing survivors of domestic violence and highlighting services provided by Clerks of Court to assist those facing domestic violence issues. “One of the most heartbreaking parts of our jobs as Clerks is seeing individuals and families come to us for help with protective injunctions due to domestic violence,” said 2023-24 FCCC President and Suwannee County Clerk of the Circuit Court and Comptroller Barry Baker. “If you or anyone you know needs assistance with a domestic violence injunction or restraining order, we encourage you to please contact your local Clerk’s office for assistance. We provide guidance and help process applications for these cases year-round at no cost to the filer.” Florida’s Clerks of Court receive and process domestic violence injunctions, or restraining orders, and these essential services are available at no cost to recipients of the service. Clerks of Court are dedicated to having professionals available at courthouses and annex locations to help with domestic violence injunctions for vulnerable individuals. Anyone with questions about the process for filing an injunction should contact their local Clerk of Court’s office in their county for specific information. In 2022, Clerks throughout the state processed 80,319 applications for protective injunctions that help those impacted by domestic violence and other vulnerable populations. If you or someone you know is currently experiencing domestic violence, know the important steps you can take: - If you are in immediate danger, always call 9-1-1 for assistance from law enforcement. - Contact your local Clerk’s office to start the process of filing for an injunction or restraining order. - Use the Florida Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-500-1119 for support, advocacy and assistance finding shelter. Visit www.FLClerks.com to locate your local Clerk’s office and learn more about the support and services available.

Our July In Compliance newsletter is out! This month, we cover the following topics: Supreme Court Overrules Chevron, Eliminating Deference to Agencies When Statutes Are Ambiguous Trump Campaign Files FEC Complaint Against Harris Campaign for Taking Control of Biden's Campaign Funds Rep. Barragan Requests FEC Advisory Opinion to Use Campaign Funds to Pay for Elder Care Ohio Couple Sues FEC Challenging Public Disclosure Rules for Conduit Contributions Compliance Consultant Pleads Guilty to Misappropriating $185,000 of Committee Funds, Receives Home Confinement, Community Service, and Three Years Probation Eleventh Circuit Remands Rivera Case for Jury Trial; Decision Could Impair FEC's Ability to Pursue Knowing and Willful Charges FCC Publishes Rulemaking Proposal for New Disclosure Requirements for Political Advertising Containing AI-Generated Content Federal District Courts Split on FTC’s New Rule Banning Non-Compete Clauses in Employment Agreements FinCEN: Terminated Entities Must Still File Beneficial Ownership Reports Wisconsin Supreme Court Reverses Itself to Bring Back Absentee Ballot Drop Boxes in Time for November Election North Carolina Eases State Registration and Reporting Requirement for Federal PACs #PoliticalLaw #CorporateCompliance #ElectionLaw #CampaignFinance #SCOTUS #ConstitutionalLaw Jan Baran, Michael Bayes, Christine Fort, Jessica Furst Johnson, Tom Josefiak, Timothy Kronquist, William McGinley, Andrew Pardue, Drew Watkins, Matthew Petersen, Steve Roberts, Jason Torchinsky, Jill Vogel https://lnkd.in/e7uvESz3

I fought the law and… I WON! After being subjected to a humiliating ordeal in court by my abuser’s defence advocate, I started the arduous process of submitting a complaint. I had to study the law, compile it all myself, facing off against a team of lawyers… and it’s been upheld! I was subjected to personal attacks both before and after my attacker was found guilty that left me feeling humiliated and traumatised. The advocate in question continually pushed passed the boundaries of the law outline in s274 of the Criminal Procedure Scotland Act (1995). This has been a year and a half long process that’s been far from easy. In order to submit the complaint, I had to access my court transcript which at the time cost thousands. I fundraised for it, which in turn helped convince the Scottish Government to waive transcript fees for survivors! I did not have any lawyers to help me. I am not a legal professional, so had to set about learning about the relevant sections of the law and the code of conduct for advocates. I spent hours and hours working on this complaint and going back and forth with the relevant bodies. Complaints of this nature are enormously rare, and after going through this process I can understand why. It is a complex, lengthy, and expensive process. That’s before considering the trauma and emotional toll. This is precisely why so many defence lawyers operate within a culture of impunity. They believe they can say or do whatever they want as there won’t be consequences. They depend on the secrecy and complexity of the court system to protect them. I hope that this sets a precedent and shows advocates and other defence lawyers that actions have consequences, and they cannot say and do whatever they please regardless of the law. I am immensely proud of myself for having persevered through this process and having never given up, despite the obstacles. It also goes without saying that I’m SO SO grateful to everyone who has helped me along the way and donated to my fundraiser. This happened because of you. #survivor #scotslaw #vawg #criminaljustice #justicereform #accountability https://lnkd.in/dvBJTwe6

This is one of the most inspiring cases I have read about recently. Every rape case I have seen in the courtroom has carried the weight of prolific and egregiously harmful personal attacks against victims in order to discredit their experiences. The result is verdicts founded on misogyny, with rapists walking free, and victims too put-off by such a traumatising cross-examination process to go to trial. This victory signals a turning point in accountability for defence lawyers in rape cases, as well as marking the end of the era of impunity. Ms Wilson's abuser was found guilty but, far too often in these cases, the personal attacks entangled in misogyny deployed by defence lawyers to discredit a victim outweigh a defendant's claim against a rapist, resulting in rapists walking free. Ms Wilson has shifted the balance in these cases. Not only are defence lawyers accountable, but victims now have a better chance of a fairer (or, at least, interrogation and harassment free) trial. It will be interesting to see what happens to rape prosecution rates in the light of this. With the possibility that defence lawyers in these cases might actually be held to care standards and not allowed to weaponise misogyny and victim blaming with the impunity with which they have thus far relied upon - I think we have cause to be hopeful.

Once again, our system of laws, focused as it is on the rights of individuals, proves that it is simply not equipped to hold state actors accountable for systemic racism and other broad-based crimes without a single, linear narrative of culpability. Under our laws, a crime becomes harder and harder to redress the further away it recedes in time, but in the case of the most systemic victimizations, it is this same passage of time that has caused the most deleterious effects of once straightforward crimes to intensify and metastasize. The efficacy of our laws is at its weakest in precisely those places where criminal harm is the greatest and most widely felt. We need a new legal framework capable of responding to systemically perpetrated offenses.

Vacatur is a complete form of post-conviction or post-arrest relief for victims. The result of a successful vacatur petition is the vacated record is sealed and destroyed. Senator Marty Block, the author of the vacatur statute, explained that the central purpose of the vacatur law is to “give victims of human trafficking a fresh start by creating a pathway to erase any nonviolent arrests and convictions from their records.”14 By vacating criminal records, the statute removes both explicit and implicit barriers to employment, housing and services that human trafficking survivors face as a result of their records. This, in turn, allows survivors to become full participants in their communities, living as parents, students, neighbors, colleagues, and professionals who are no longer held back by their past. California’s vacatur statute reflects a fundamental shift in the law towards viewing survivors of human trafficking more accurately and justly – as victims rather than criminals – and providing a remarkable form of relief to remedy their past criminalization. Please share this with someone who might not know this information.

“Ending qualified immunity is a critical step toward providing exonerees with the financial justice they deserve after government officials violated their rights and unjustly took their freedom.” Here’s what you need to know about qualified immunity: 1. What is qualified immunity? Qualified immunity is a legal doctrine established by the Supreme Court that protects government officials, including police, from personal liability for constitutional violations unless the right infringed was “clearly established” at the time. “Clearly established” law as stated in the 2018 Supreme Court decision District of Columbia v. Wesby, means that at the time of the officer’s actions, the legal standards were clear enough that any reasonable official would know that what they were doing was unlawful. Therefore, in order for a victim of misconduct to have success suing a government official, they must prove the following:

We can not make true change is how we treat each other until we stop the Death Penalty. We need to start focusing on how to heal the damage done; not the punishment. Living on Death Row for YEARS/DECADES is Torture. Never knowing from day to day when the day may come. I believe it is almost worse than actually killing them. We need to look at many areas in life - poverty, addiction, homelessness, LGBTQ, & neglect and abuse of people in general. We all are the same, in that, we all want to survive with as little suffering as possible. No matter what, I still believe in love, kindness, compassion and empathy. #nomoredeath #checkDNA #courtdna #retrialdna #testdna #healing #empathy #life #changemakers #PrisonPOD #podcast #awakeningexhange #programs #bethechange

Here is the latest coverage of legal issues that affect our clients. Read on…