Federal Public Defender

              Northern District of California

                    Barry J. Portman

                   Federal Defender

New Cases and Developments in Federal Criminal Defense

A comprehensive discussion of new Ninth Circuit cases, and of other new legal challenges and ideas, can be found on the Ninth Circuit blog. The Ninth Circuit blog contains Federal Defender Jon Sands' weekly Ninth Circuit summaries, interesting new defense challenges and theories posted by AFPDs David Porter and Steve Sady, and the “Case o’ The Week” memos by AFPD Steve Kalar. The Ninth Circuit blog is a useful starting place for the latest developments in federal criminal defense.

CJA counsel are encouraged to comment on the blog postings – many new ideas have been fleshed out and enhanced by attorney commentary.

To search the blog, once within the site hit, “Cntrl-F.” This will generate a search window. Type in a term and hit search. Note that many postings are also located within the blog archives, which can also be searched using "Ctnrl-F."

Another valuable resource for CJA counsel is the web page maintained by the Training Branch of the Office of Defender Services, available here. This site lists upcoming training events for Defender staff as well as for CJA counsel. In addition, the Training Branch provides links to useful online resources, and training materials from its seminars.