Tartan Forensic
Elevating Practice
ALL COURSES
"Justice would less often miscarry if all who are to weigh evidence were more conscious of the treachery of human memory" Hugo Münsterberg (On the Witness Stand, 1908)
TF provides: downloadable on-demand courses and / or webinars and in person delivery courses
Designed using by the Tartan Forensic "Theory to Action" CPD Model astutely structured for the busy modern defence practice
Self-study courses are in downloadable video format. Unless stated, each course is of 1 hour duration with CLE credits shown.
A short assessment is provided upon conclusion of video course.
Webinars are designed to be engaging and progressive - backed by vast experince in professional training and assessment.
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Current Downloadable CLE / CPD Courses
Core Courses
Ethics vs. Empathy in
Criminal Defence Practice
How Biases Fuel Profiling Fallacies and Eyewitness Fallibility
This rigorous course assesses the emotional tightrope of criminal defense—balancing zealous advocacy, professional boundaries, and genuine human connection. For practical value, there is a running pattern of 'theory to practice' conversion points at each element of the course. Rounded by learning-capture summaries. Structure: 🟣 1. Your Underpinning Ethical Frame of Reference 🟣 2. Psychological Input The Emotional Weight of Advocacy: Examines the toll that secondary trauma, moral injury, and compassion fatigue take on a defense lawyer’s mental wellbeing, and how these pressures can ultimately lead to professional burnout or losing composure in court. The Empathy-Objectivity Paradox: Explores how deep emotional connection to a client can cloud judgment, whilst complete emotional detachment risks losing the human element altogether. 🟣 3. Theory to Practice Conversion ‘Tools’ - Self-Assessment audit template, addressing strengths vs vulnerabilities of: - Empathy - ‘Emotional Numbing’ - Hyperarousal & Hypervigilance - Compartmentalisation - Secondary Survivor Guilt 🟣 4. Key Takeaways Navigate the spectrum from emotional entanglement to complete detachment, representing clients ethically, effectively, and judiciously. Advocate assertively for clients while strictly maintaining professional and ethical boundaries. $65 Course Code: TF126D
This course converts to practice a rigorous psychological deep-dive into how hidden cognitive biases distort criminal investigations, profiling, and eyewitness testimony. 🟣 1. Psychological Input Cognitive Biases & Fallacies: Examines core mental shortcuts—focusing on the Dunning-Kruger effect and confirmation bias—that derail human judgment and decision-making. - The Mechanics of Investigative Tunnel Vision: Investigates how overconfidence and preconceived notions lock investigators and experts into deeply flawed narratives. 🟣 2. Tools Analytical Models: Actionable frameworks to identify and expose cognitive traps hidden within investigative reports, police procedures, and expert opinions. 🟣 3. Key Takeaways Deconstruct Profiling Fallacies: Spot structural flaws and subjective traps disguised as scientific methods within criminal profiling. - Expose Eyewitness Fallibility: Master the psychological triggers behind false identifications and unreliable memory to dismantle weak testimony. - Challenge Flawed Investigations: Leverage cognitive science to expose systemic bias and protect your client from wrongful accusations. $65 Course Code: TF226D
Clients & Law Enforcement Interrogations
Sanitising the Interrogation Room:
The O.B.F.U.S.C.A.T.E. Framework for
Criminal Defence Lawyers
2 hours CLE/ CPD credit. Too many defense lawyers and advisers approach police interrogations as a spectator. Commonly intimidated about challenging and intervening in the 'here and now' of interrogations any with skilled assertion. Moreover, post interrogation —waiting months until a suppression hearing to fix damage that was already done when a client was not well represented when it mattered. This inevitably sets a pattern of the type that is not conducive to effective defense . It’s time to change that approach. Introducing O.B.F.U.S.C.A.T.E., a cutting-edge, tactical framework designed specifically for criminal defense lawyers and legal advisors. This high-impact training equips you with the exact strategies, real-time objection scripts, and cross-examination techniques needed to actively purge and challenge unlawful police tactics the moment they happen. What You Will Learn: The 9-Point Psychological Blueprint: Identify and push back against police manipulation tactics ranging from Oppressive atmospheres to Exhaustion Exploitation and Ambiguous Rights Waivers. Pre-Trial & Trial Advocacy: Seamlessly transition your in-room challenges into watertight suppression motions and devastating cross-examination questions. Stop cleaning up the mess later. Safeguard your client's rights, secure the record, and sanitize the interrogation room of unlawful pressure. Who Should Attend: Criminal defense practitioners, duty solicitors, legal advisors, and junior litigators Turn your key challenges into active defence: - Before, during, and after, Interrogations $179 Course Code: TF179D
Unseen Vulnerability: Defending Autistic Clients in Police Interrogations
Convened by our expert trainer, Kate Coldrick. Autistic individuals face a disproportionately high risk of false confessions, misunderstanding, and coerced statements during police interrogations. Our excellent course in Defending Autistic Clients in Police Interrogations provides criminal defense attorneys with essential, practical strategies to identify neurodivergent traits, challenge deceptive interrogation tactics, and safeguard their clients' constitutional rights from the moment of first contact. Equipping practitioners to spot subtle vulnerabilities that typical legal training misses, this course is vital for ensuring fair representation in modern criminal defense practice. 1 hour CLE/ CPD credit $95 Course Code: TF127D
Specialist
Humanizing High-Net-Worth Defendants
Affluence, perceived privilege, and high-stakes visibility can trigger deep-seated juror resentment and systemic bias, turning a wealthy client into an easy target for hostile or 'tribalistic' prosecution. These roadblocks are frequently amplified by law enforcement narratives that weaponize the client's wealth. This course also supports lawyers to spot and challenge such biases pre-trial in discovery issues. 🟣 1. Psychological Input The Economics of Bias: Examines how class envy, socioeconomic stereotypes, and anti-wealth sentiment unconsciously distort juror empathy and decision-making. - The Psychology of Entitlement and Perception: Explores how high-net-worth behaviors are misinterpreted by juries, and how to reframe privilege into relatable human traits. 🟣 2. Tools The Defense Advocacy Toolkit: Actionable strategies for voir dire, framing narrative arcs, and presenting financial clients in a way that engenders empathy without alienating the jury. 🟣 3. Key Takeaways Combat Juror Resentment: Master techniques to identify and neutralize socioeconomic bias during jury selection. - Redefine the Narrative: Move past the "wealthy defendant" stereotype by building authentic, human-centric courtroom personas. - Elevate Mitigation and Sentencing: Translate financial success and background into compelling mitigation strategies that resonate across economic lines. $125 Course Code: TF526D
Decoding Insanity, Psychosis, and Psychopathy to Persuasively Argue Mental State Defenses
Disastrous, avoidable guilty pleas or verdicts or wayward mitigation often stem from lawyers forcing nuanced and complex psychiatric explanations into rigid legal checkboxes. These errors are also driven by misleading legal arguments that distort true mental state defenses. Therefore this course presents new elements of positive and practical skills and abilities of issues in one the most challenging areas of criminal defense practice. Converting these conventional weaknesses and evaded areas into elements in your skill-set where competence and integrity can thrive. 🟣 1. Psychological Input - The Clinical Reality of Psychosis & Insanity: Examines how severe mental disorders fundamentally distort cognitive reality, impulse control, and volition. - Understand why most people affected by psychopathy are not violent. - Narcissism and Personality Disorders: Explores the behavioral, emotional, and neurological markers distinguishing clinical psychopathy from standard antisocial traits. 🟣 2. Tools The Defense Lawyer's Examination Toolkit: Actionable strategies,, factoring in skills in crucial assertion situations, preparing, vetting, and ethical client management, leading to conducting direct or cross-examinations of mental health experts, while effectively dismantling baseless opposition arguments. Avoiding erroneous mental condition related defenses. 🟣 3. Key Takeaways Master Clinical Realities: Gain a clear, accurate command of psychosis, insanity, and psychopathy far beyond standard, oversimplified legal definitions. - Deconstruct Expert Testimony: Persuasively challenge flawed psychiatric conclusions and bolster your own expert witness presentations. - Elevate Mental State Defenses: - Translate complex psychological data into compelling, courtroom-ready narratives that protect your client's rights. $85 Course Code: TF426D
