The Nature, Purpose, and Structure of the Manual

• Author: Anthony G. Amsterdam/Martin Guggenheim/Randy A. Hertz
• Profession: University Professor and Professor of Law at New York University/Fiorello LaGuardia Professor of Clinical Law at New York University School of Law/Professor of Clinical Law at NYU School of Law
• Pages: 1-2

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§ 1.01 The Nature and Purpose of the Manual

This M  is a how-to-do-it guidebook for handling juvenile court c ases from begin-

ning to end. It differs from most books about juvenile court, which typically begin with

an examination of the history and philosophy of juvenile court and thereafter focus

(exclusively or predominantly) upon the aspects of juvenile practice that differ from

adult criminal procedure. The M pretermits any discussion of purely academic,

historical, or philosophical matters and deals exclusively with the tasks, skills, rules of

law, and issues of strategic judgment involved in representing clients in juvenile court.

Rather than ignoring those aspects of juvenile proceedings that mirror adult criminal

practice, the M exam ines them at every stage.

This M  is, quite consciously, a manual for defense attorneys. Wh ile the M-

 contains some material that may also be useful to other players in the system, it

does not purport to describe or analyze subjects falli ng outside the purview of a defense

attorney’s obligations to his or her client.

§ 1.02 The Structure of the Manual

The M  proceeds, more or less, according to the chronology of an indiv idual delin-

quency case. Thus the chapters begin with the earliest stages at whichdefense counsel

enters the case, then advance through the pretrial stages and trial, and conclude with

disposition and post-dispositional remedies.

The goal of making this M easy to use during court hearings has led to the

authors’ abandonment of various conventions of manual-writing. The M deals

with topics as they become relevant at each particular stage of a proceeding, even when

this format requires dispersing material with related subject matters among different

chapters. For example, the topic of suppression motions is covered in five different chap-

ters: a section on drafting these motions is found in the chapter on motions that need

to be filed shortly after Initial Hearing; later there comes a chapter on techniques for

CHAPTER 1

THE NATURE, PURPOSE,

AND STRUCTURE OF

THE MANUAL