On September 17, 2026, the New York State Court of Appeals granted Vladeck, Raskin & Clark's motion to file an amicus brief for its pro bono client, the Plea Bargaining Institute (PBI).
The case, People of the State of New York v. Jayvon J. Ogden (NY Court of Appeals 2026-547), asks whether a juvenile can waive appellate review of a court's refusal to move his case to Family Court. PBI argues that some rights are too fundamental to the criminal system's integrity to be waived in a plea deal, and that any waiver by a juvenile requires a searching judicial inquiry into whether he truly understood it, citing research on juveniles' limited capacity to grasp such consequences.
The brief was authored by Professor @Thea Johnson of @Rutgers Law School and Dr. @Rebecca K. Helm of the @University of Exeter, alongside @Norman L. Reimer and @Ethan F. Davis who assisted and served as local counsel.