Donate

Practitioners’ Toolkit — Victim Rights Toolkit & Enforcement

Rights Enforcement Toolkit

Victims’ rights are rights personally held by crime victims that can be legally asserted during a criminal case. Independent legal representation is absolutely critical to making these rights meaningful. This Toolkit contains tools to help practitioners effectively assert and seek enforcement of their clients’ rights. For use and distribution of Toolkit materials, reference the information at the end of this page.

Foundations
PreTrial
Trial
Post-Trial

Rights Enforcement Toolkit

The Rights Enforcement Toolkit has four parts: Foundations, Pretrial, Trial, and Post-Trial.

Whether you are entering a case pretrial, during trial, or post-trial, reviewing all of the tools is critical because victims’ rights can be implicated at any stage of the proceedings. These tools include: video tutorials that explain key rights and practices; flowcharts that guide you through when and how to assert those rights; checklists to help ensure that you are making the best strategic arguments; and sample court filings to support your litigation efforts.

The Rights Enforcement Toolkit is meant as an overview; because every case is complex and every survivor unique, NCVLI’s legal team is ready to provide in-depth technical assistance.

Foundations of Representation

Victims’ rights attorneys are critical to making victims’ rights meaningful. This section of the Toolkit includes video resources containing foundational information from which to build a strong, effective victims’ rights practice.

A few featured videos from this Toolkit are included below; for a comprehensive playlist covering the basics of victims’ rights representation, please visit the YouTube playlist Foundations of Representation.

Core Concepts

Victims’ Rights 101

Other playlists for attorneys are available on NCVLI’s YouTube channel, including:

Trial

Checklist for Opposing Admission of Evidence Under Rape Shield

Sample Cases: Securing Testimonial Accommodations for Crime Victims and Non-Victim Witnesses

ARGUING FOR A VICTIMS’ RIGHT TO BE PRESENT

Sample Motion to be Present

Right to be Present Checklist

Use and Distribution Information:

The resources and videos that comprise NCVLI’s Rights Enforcement Toolkit are copyrighted and may be used for training/educational use without further permission, as long as the National Crime Victim Law Institute’s authorship is explicitly acknowledged in the training materials, along with a link to NCVLI’s website (www.ncvli.org). For all other permissions, please send your inquiry to ncvli@lclark.edu.

Portions of this Toolkit were originally supported by Grant No. 2012-TA-AX-K030, awarded by the Office on Violence Against Women, U.S. Department of Justice and others supported by Grant Nos. 2017-VF-GX-K026, 2018-V3-GX-K018, and 2020-V3-GX-K022. The opinions, findings, conclusions, and recommendations expressed in these materials are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Office on Violence Against Women, U.S. Department of Justice or the Office for Victims of Crime, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice.

Powered by  GDPR Cookie Compliance
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.