ABOTA Foundation's Justice by the People Program Earns AEP Distinguished Achievement Award

    DALLAS, July 6 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Association of
 Educational Publishers recently announced that the Foundation of the
 American Board of Trial Advocates was the winner of the Distinguished
 Achievement Award, which recognizes the best educational materials - such
 as books, periodicals, educational toys, and software - within subject
 categories and by audience.
     This year, Justice by the People, an interactive program developed by
 the Foundation of ABOTA to teach students about trial by jury, won the
 Distinguished Achievement Award for Social Studies Instruction for grades
 6-8. The program is available at www.scholastic.com, an award-winning
 portal for school-based professionals including teachers, administrators,
 librarians, as well as families and kids.
     "More than five million Americans are called for jury duty each year,"
 said ABOTA Foundation president Joseph P. Milton of the Jacksonville, Fla.,
 law firm of Milton, Leach, Whitman, D'Andrea, Charek & Milton PA. "Many of
 today's students will serve on juries someday. For most, it will be their
 principal way (other than voting) of participating directly in the
 democratic process. Jury duty will be an opportunity to offer great
 service, but also an awesome responsibility. The more jurors understand
 their role, the better they will be able to fulfill this responsibility."
     The Justice by the People program was launched in 1998 to allow
 students hands-on experience with the trial process. It contains multiple
 lesson plans and features an interactive game called Make Your Case. The
 easy-to-use, turnkey lesson plans and student reproducibles are designed to
 help teach students about the Sixth and Seventh Amendments to the U.S.
 Constitution and the critical importance of the right to trial by jury.
     "Our mission is to preserve the right to trial by jury. One of the
 scopes of that mission is to educate people about that constitutional
 right. We feel the best place to start is in the school systems," Milton
 added.
     Founded in 1958, ABOTA is a national association of experienced trial
 lawyers and judges. ABOTA and its members are dedicated to the preservation
 and promotion of the civil jury trial right provided by the 7th Amendment
 to the U.S. Constitution. The Foundation of ABOTA, formed in 1992, is an
 affiliated charitable entity, the mission of which is to support the
 purposes of ABOTA through education and research. ABOTA membership consists
 of more than 6,300 lawyers and judges spread among 93 Chapters in all 50
 States and the District of Columbia. ABOTA publishes Voir Dire magazine,
 which features in-depth articles on current and historical issues related
 to constitutional rights, in particular the Seventh Amendment right to
 trial by jury.
     For more information contact:
     Brian Tyson at (800) 932-2682
     briant@abota.org.
 
 

SOURCE American Board of Trial Advocates