Law & Justice Academy

Youth Court's Law & Justice Academy applies youth development principles to legal education and practice for middle and high school age students--and empowers them through experience.

Youth Advocate Basic Law Training

Basic Law is a class that educates and prepares youth to carry out the roles of Attorney, Bailiff, and Clerk in the courtroom.  This rigorous program covers essential material such as the History of Youth Court, the principles of restorative justice, the skills of crowd management for the bailiff, argumentation and presentation skills for the attorney, courtroom running for the clerk, and public speaking for all roles.

After this ten-session class, there will be an MYC BAR exam that any youth must pass in order to become a Bona Fide Attorney, Bailiff, or Clerk.  This BAR exam is comprehensive and covers everything the class teaches.  Once a youth passes the BAR exam, they will be able to practice as an Attorney, Bailiff or Clerk in actual Youth Court hearings.  The skills learned are not only invaluable at MYC, but also transferable to many endeavors a youth may pursue.

Law Associations

Law Associations are meetings during non-court weeks in which Bona Fide/Associate Attorneys develop their skills in areas such as case preparation, theory development, fact finding, objections, & opening statements. All volunteer attorneys are required to attend Law Associations twice a month.
Law Associations give youth volunteers the opportunity to experience interaction with multiple professionals in the legal field such as attorneys, judges, police officers, & probation officers.

Alternative High Schools Program

At multiple alternative high schools in the Oakland, we facilitate Street Law Workshops. These are discussion and activity-based workshops to teach students about their rights as a youth. Popular topics are Police Contact, Juvenile Justice System, Underage Drinking, & Student Rights.

Middle Schools Program

We facilitate Due Process and Restorative Justice workshops at Oakland middle schools for 8th grade classes. Some of the main goals of the workshops  are our effort to teach the students the general definition of due process and restorative justice, the importance of the due process clause in the Bill of Rights & the 14th Amendment, and how to distinguish between the differences of the current criminal system and restorative justice procedures.