MHLD Training Unit: Lunch & Learn Series
Myers Litigation
November 21st 1-2p
1 CLE
On Zoom
Join us at this virtual, one-hour training to learn about how to represent incarcerated competent clients who face forcible “lifesaving” medical treatment via a petition from the Department of Correction or House of Correction.
- These petitions, called “Myers petitions,” seek authorization to force clients exercising their rights to privacy and bodily autonomy to receive proposed “lifesaving” treatment in the name of state interests.
- EachMyers petition differs, raising various state interests and the cases move quickly because these are emergency petitions requiring counsel to obtain the tools necessary to zealously defend a client in these circumstances.
After attending, you will be able to:
- Identify advocacy steps to learn, seek & satisfy your client’s objectives for exercising their right to refuse proposed treatment
- Describe the relevant caselaw and legal framework for the court’s analysis
- Distinguish the historical context of these compulsory treatment petitions from the current penal conditions where these petitions arise
- Develop effective strategic approaches necessary to defend clients facing Myers
Participants will learn from MHLD staff trial attorney, Jasmine Villaneuva-Simms, regarding her defense of several clients and the strategies she used to effectively defeat the Myers petitions obtaining judicial decisions that upheld their rights to privacy, autonomy and bodily integrity.