On September 20th Daryl Atkinson presented testimony on the importance of knowing the collateral consequences of a criminal conviction before entering a guilty plea. He joined Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy and others on Capitol Hill for the launch of a new website created by the American Bar Association’s Criminal Justice Section and the National Institute of Justice. “Lifting the veil on these invisible punishments” will be easier for defense lawyers and for people facing criminal charges thanks to the new tool that will identify all the civil consequences of a criminal conviction. The site was modeled on North Carolina’s novel one stop portal (C-CAT) http://ccat.sog.unc.edu/ that provides North Carolina citizens a way to assess the full ramifications of their criminal justice involvement.
The Legal Times reports on the event here: http://legaltimes.typepad.com/blt/2012/09/new-website-shows-collateral-consequences-of-criminal-convictions.html
The ABA website is: http://www.abacollateralconsequences.org/CollateralConsequences/map.jsp
