Join us as we kick off our Enhancing Justice for Crime Victims summer webinar series!

Helping victims requires everyone in the criminal justice system to know what rights victims have and how to protect those rights.  To succeed, prosecutors, victim attorneys, and advocates must work together.  This session, designed for advocates, will be an overview of victims’ rights laws, and an identification of common issues that victims face as they are forced to navigate the criminal justice system.
NCVLI executive director Meg Garvin, a victim’s rights attorney, and Washington Coalition of Crime Victim Advocates executive director Karla Salp, a victim advocate, will discuss the state of victims’ rights laws nationally; identify the most common stages in a criminal proceeding where victims’ rights are at risk; discuss how advocates can protect these rights without crossing the line into unlawful practice of law; and explore how advocates and attorneys can best work together to enforce and advance victims’ rights.

— About Our Presenters —

Meg Garvin, MA, JD, is the executive director of the National Crime Victim Law Institute (NCVLI) and a clinical professor of law at Lewis & Clark Law School.  Ms. Garvin is recognized as a leading expert on victims’ rights.  She has testified before Congress and the Oregon Legislature on the current state of victim law.  She serves on the Legislative & Public Policy Committee of the Oregon Attorney General’s Sexual Assault Task Force, co-chairs the Oregon Attorney General’s Crime Victims’ Rights Task Force, and is a Board member of the Citizens’ Crime Commission.  She previously served as co-chair of the American Bar Association’s Criminal Justice Section Victims Committee and as a member of the board of directors for the National Organization of Victim Assistance.  She is the recipient of 2012 Crime Victims First-Stewart Family Outstanding Community Service Award.  Prior to joining NCVLI, Ms. Garvin practiced law in Minneapolis, Minnesota and clerked for the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals. She received her B.A. from the University of Puget Sound, her M.A. in communication studies from the University of Iowa, and her J.D. from the University of Minnesota.

Karla Salp is the Executive Director for the Washington Coalition of Crime Victim Advocates (WCCVA), a coalition advocating for improved rights and services for victims of all crime types.  Karla was raised on a farm in George, Washington and her introduction into the world of crime victim services came as an AmeriCorps VISTA volunteer in 2003.  She spent her service year as a Child Advocate for a domestic and sexual violence program serving four counties in rural Montana.  When her service year ended, Karla became the Victim/Witness Coordinator for the Grant County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office in Ephrata, Washington. Increasingly discouraged by the treatment of victims in the criminal justice system, she began to work with WCCVA to promote change on a systems level in 2005.  In 2010, Karla moved to Olympia, Washington and became the Executive Director of WCCVA where she passionately works to improve the rights and service available to victims as well as obtaining necessary funding and resources for victim advocates, regardless of crime type.

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