This course is offered for co-enrollment to law students representing clients before administrative agencies through the Post-Conviction Justice Project Summer Program. The course covers the constitutional, statutory and regulatory evidentiary concepts that govern the California parole process and the strategic application of those concepts during administrative hearings on behalf of clients. Application of evidentiary concepts will include: (1) review of the administrative record; (2) evaluation of the record for compliance with constitutional, statutory and regulatory evidentiary principles; (3) development of additional admissible evidence supportive of the case; and (4) strategic use of evidentiary objections. Students will use this knowledge and experience to effectively represent clients at administrative hearings, including questioning clients to elicit relevant evidence, objecting to inadmissible evidence, and arguing the relevance and reliability of admitted evidence. Students will be asked to identify and prepare court challenges to hearing decisions based on constitutional violations of evidentiary principles.
