Wednesday, October 29, 9:00 a.m.–1:30 p.m. ET
| MCLE Credit: | 3.5 |
| Live-Interactive Credit: | 3.5 (all formats) |
| Designation Credit: | 3.5 Trial Practice/Litigation (Designations Information) |
Register early to attend in-person, live on site, as space is limited.
Kids are different, and those differences matter in court. Whether addressing issues pretrial, at trial, or at sentencing, attorneys who understand these differences will be able to make more informed decisions about how to proceed. Features of adolescent development, including but not limited to brain development, are often of central importance. Additionally, mental health problems and trauma are common in youth who find themselves before the courts, and these features interact with developmental influences in ways that are also distinct from those involving adults. Focusing on these differences, this seminar will offer an overview presented by a forensic psychologist of those foundational psychological factors. Then, the psychologist and an experienced attorney will discuss the application of those features in two case examples: one pretrial and one at sentencing.
While juvenile cases are frequently informed by developmental and psychological issues, those involving serious charges bring these issues to the fore when the stakes are high, especially when popular misconceptions (e.g., about capacity, comprehension, judgment and appreciation, developmental trajectories, and external influences) can intrude. This seminar will address ways that attorneys, with and without expert assistance, may consider these issues and craft better outcomes for their clients. While the case examples will focus on the defense perspective, the content will also be relevant to both prosecutors and judges, who must also understand adolescents to come to their own conclusions about how to proceed and be prepared to critically evaluate defense claims.
Registration Deadlines:
| Webcast: | 10 minutes prior to seminar. If you register for a webcast the day of the seminar, your e-mail receipt will include a link to launch the seminar and download the materials. |
| Telephone: | Online registration ends at 11:59 p.m. the day preceding the seminar Call (800) 979-8253 to register up to one hour prior to the seminar |
| Live on Site: | Online registration ends at 11:59 p.m. the day preceding the seminar Walk-in registration is permitted on a space-available basis |
Cancellation Policy: Cancellation/transfer requests will be honored until 5:00 p.m. the day preceding the seminar. You will, however, be charged $60 if you cancel or transfer your registration to a different seminar after the link to the materials has been e-mailed by Virginia CLE®.
Full refunds or transfers are available up to two days after a webcast in the unlikely event that you experience technical difficulties.
Dietary Restrictions: If you have dietary restrictions and are attending the seminar in person, please email tfitzgerald@vacle.org.
Inclement Weather Policy and Updates
MCLE Credit Caveat: The MCLE Board measures credits by the time you spend in attendance. If you enter a seminar late or leave it early, or both, you must reflect those adjustments accurately in the credits you report on your credit reporting form. A code will be given at the end of the seminar, which must be written on your MCLE form.
Private recording of this program is prohibited.
Can’t Attend?
E-mail distance_ed@vacle.org to be notified when/if this program is made available as an online or USB seminar.
E-mail publications@vacle.org to be notified when/if this program’s seminar materials are made available for sale.
| 9:00 | Foundations: Trauma, Adolescent Development, Mental Health in Adolescents Jeffrey Aaron, Ph.D. This session will update criminal law practitioners on the most recent and important legal developments in behavioral health as they relate to criminal law practice. |
| 10:30 | Break |
| 10:45 | Applying the Science: Pretrial—Transfers—Juvenile Court Jeffrey Aaron, Ph.D., Elizabeth Murtagh This session will explore a hypothetical fact pattern that will cover the transfer process with arguments for and against transfer. Faculty will: |
| 11:45 | Lunch (provided on site) |
| 12:30 | Applying the Science: Sentencing—Circuit Court Jeffrey Aaron, Ph.D., Artisha Todd Gregg This session will explore a hypothetical on the sentencing of a youth. Faculty will: |
| 1:30 | Adjourn |
Jeffrey Aaron, Ph.D., Virginia Department of Behavioral Health & Developmental Services / Richmond
Elizabeth P. Murtagh, University of Virginia / Charlottesville
Artisha Todd Gregg, The Gregg Law Group / Norfolk
Jeffrey Aaron, Ph.D., Virginia Department of Behavioral Health & Developmental Services / Richmond
Jeffrey Aaron, Ph.D., author of Chapters 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 of the Virginia CLE publication Defending Youth Charged with Serious Offenses, is a clinical and forensic psychologist. Currently the Juvenile Justice and Behavioral Health Program Manager for the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services, he previously spent almost 18 years at the Commonwealth Center for Children and Adolescents (CCCA), Virginia’s only public psychiatric hospital for children and adolescents, in clinical roles and as the hospital’s director. Dr. Aaron is Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences at the University of Virginia Medical School and associate faculty at the Institute of Law, Psychiatry and Public Policy. Dr. Aaron has published in the areas of coping with stress, trauma, and forensic psychological evaluation, provided invited testimony before the Virginia House and Senate, and presented across the country on topics including forensic mental health evaluation, adolescent development and legal decision-making, coping with traumatic loss, and clinical assessment of children and adolescents. He also has a private practice in which he conducts forensic psychological evaluations of adolescents and adults, and he has served as an expert witness in juvenile and circuit courts across Virginia. Areas of forensic specialization include evaluation of confessions, mitigation, posttraumatic stress, and juvenile justice. He is actively involved in training public safety officers to have better understanding of and interactions with youth.
Elizabeth P. Murtagh, University of Virginia / Charlottesville
Elizabeth P. Murtagh teaches the Criminal Defense Clinic at the Law School and serves part time with the Virginia Indigent Defense Commission. She retired in 2024 from her position as the chief public defender for the city of Charlottesville and Albemarle County in Charlottesville, Virginia. Ms. Murtagh earned her Bachelor of Social Work from Virginia Commonwealth University in 1979 and her J.D. from Washington and Lee University in 1989, where she was an associate editor of the Virginia Capital Case Clearinghouse Digest. She is a member of the Virginia Criminal Justice Conference, the Charlottesville-Albemarle Evidence Based Decision Making Policy Team, the Charlottesville-Albemarle Drug Treatment Court Advisory Board, and the Charlottesville-Albemarle Behavioral Health Treatment Docket Advisory Board. She is a 2012 Virginia Law Foundation Fellow and a Virginia Lawyers Weekly “Leaders in the Law” Class of 2015. Ms. Murtagh is a former member of the Virginia State Bar Criminal Law Section Board of Governors; UVA Juvenile Competency Attainment Research and Development Center Advisory Board; Mid-Atlantic Juvenile Defender Center Advisory Board of the National Juvenile Defender Center; and the Juvenile Competency Workgroup of the Virginia Commission on Youth. She served as an investigator for two American Bar Association studies, “An Assessment of Access to Counsel and the Quality of Representation in Delinquency Proceedings in Virginia” and “An Assessment of Access to Counsel and the Quality of Representation in Delinquency Proceedings in West Virginia.” She is a frequent lecturer on representing children in court and criminal law for continuing legal education programs.
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