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The National Family Justice Center Alliance is pleased to announce a new and exciting webinar on "How to Build and Handle Forfeiture Cases in Court" with DDA Scott Kessler from the Queens District Attorneys Office located at the Queens Family Justice Center. While this webinar is primarily for domestic violence prosecutors, there is something for every professional working at a Family Justice Center.
 
Casey Gwinn, JD, Co-Founder & President of the National Family Justice Center Alliance will be facilitating the presentation and the discussion that will follow, thanks to the generous support of the Verizon Foundation through the Family Justice Center Institute.
 
As many of you know, the United States Supreme Court Decision of Crawford vs. Washington has had a dramatic impact on the prosecution of domestic violence cases.  Under this recent ruling and the cases that have followed, many prosecutors across the United States have scrambled to find new ways to prosecute domestic violence cases even when the victim fails to appear or participate. The Queens District Attorney's Office is currently leading the way in handling Forfeiture Hearings and has identified some very promising strategies which will be shared on Friday, November 14th, 2008 at 8am PST.
 
You don't want to miss this presentation by DDA Scott Kessler who will walk you through the mechanics of building and handling Forfeiture Hearings in Court. During his 45 minute presentation, which will be followed by 15-minutes of questions and answers, he will share his personal experience in handling dozens of these motions in court. He will also discuss the physical evidence and witnesses that can be introduced, the motions that you will need to submit, the burden of proof that is required and offer many tips for handling these motions. You can literally ask him anything and everything you ever wanted to know about handling a Forfeiture Hearing. 
 
Scott is Bureau Chief of the Domestic Violence Bureau for the Queens Borough District Attorney's Office.  Since 1997, he has been in charge of prosecuting the 6,000 domestic violence arrests each year in Queens. His Bureau prosecutes and files charges on cases handled by the NYPD. His Bureau has nine misdemeanor Assistant District Attorneys and four felony Assistant District Attorneys. Scott is also an adjunct professor at St. John's Law School where he teaches advanced trial skills and runs a prosecution clinic. He currently supervises 24 third-year law students from St. John's Law School, NYU and Columbia Law School all of whom prosecute domestic violence cases under a practice order.  Scott recently celebrated his 20th year at the DA's office.