The Trauma of the Sexual Assault Trial

Registration: Please call Fatima Bruckman at the Law Society of Yukon at 867-668-4231 ext. 1 to register. Let us know of any dietary restrictions.

Description: This session will examine the ways in which courtroom practice, design and aesthetics, the rules of evidence and the rituals of lawyers and judges contribute to the secondary trauma that survivors of sexualized violence often experience when they turn to the criminal justice system, serve as complainants in sexual assault trials, or are otherwise engaged in the legal system. There will be a question-and-answer period to follow the presentation.

Presenters:
Elaine Craig is a professor of law at Dalhousie University where she teaches constitutional law and the law of sexual offences. Her research focuses on sexual assault law, evidence law and feminist legal theory. She is the author of three books: Putting Trials on Trial -Sexual Assault and the Failure of the Legal Profession; Troubling Sex- Toward a Legal Theory of Sexual Integrity and most recently Mainstreaming Porn: Sexual Integrity and the Law Online. Elaine Craig has also authored numerous scholarly articles including the Ethical Identity of Sexual Assault Lawyers and her writing has been referenced in a number of leading Supreme Court of Canada cases on sexual assault including the seminal cases of R v J.J. and R v. Goldfinch.

Teresa Donnelly is a Crown Attorney with the Ontario Ministry of the Attorney General, where she has practiced since 1994. She has served on the provinces’ Sexual Violence Advisory Group since 2015. She was elected as a Bencher with the Law Society of Ontario in 2015 and 2019 and served as the President of the Law Society of Ontario from June 2020 to June 2022.

This CPD has been approved for 1.5 hours by the Law Society of British Columbia and may be applied towards the mandatory 12 hour Continuing Professional Development requirement in both BC and Yukon.