Fall 2025 Trial Skills Training Contested Hearing Practices Participant Page

Please check this page frequently for updates.

Course Agenda and Practice Session Information

• Agenda
• Practice Session Information

Course Materials

Harris-Price Case Materials:

• ITIO Harris-Price
• Harris-Price Exhibits
• Trial Skills Building Blocks

Notebooks:

• Required Efforts Practice Scenario
• Student Notebook
• PowerPoint Notebook

Suggested Preparatory Webinars

TST Participants may find the following webinar replays helpful as either an introduction to or refresher of child welfare law basics. Upon completing any of these replays, you may contact CCTraining@txcourts.gov to receive information on how to self-report MCLE hours to the State Bar of Texas.

Please note, if you have already watched any of these webinar replays in the current MCLE reporting year, you will not be able to report MCLE credit for watching the replay to the State Bar.

• Webinar: Child Welfare Case Primer: Statutory Hearings and Current Issues 
• PowerPoint: Child Welfare Case Primer PowerPoint Presentation (Updated)

Note: Slides 31 has been updated to reflect changes in the law since the recording of this webinar. Slides 38, 46, 49, and 56 have been updated to provide current links to resource webpages.

• Webinar: Reevaluating Reasonable Efforts
• PowerPoint: Reevaluating Reasonable Efforts PowerPoint Presentation

• Webinar: Understanding the Federal Intersection with Key Texas Child Welfare Laws
• PowerPoint: Understanding the Federal Intersection PowerPoint
• Children's Bureau Factsheet: Major Federal Legislation Concerned with Child Protection, Child Welfare, and Adoption

Required Preparatory Webinars

Upon completing the following sessions, please contact CCTraining@txcourts.gov for information on how to self-report MCLE hours to the State Bar of Texas. Please note, if you have already watched any of these webinar replays in the current MCLE reporting year, you will not be able to report MCLE credit for watching the replay to the State Bar. 

To Be Completed by September 16, 2025:

• Webinar: Laying Your Evidentiary Foundation 
• PowerPoint: Laying Your Evidentiary PowerPoint Presentation 

• Webinar: Making and Responding to Objections 
• PowerPoint: Making and Responding to Objections PowerPoint Presentation 

• Webinar: Preserving the Record for Appeal
• PowerPoint: Preserving the Record for Appeal PowerPoint Presentation
• Supplemental Paper: Preserving the Record for Appeal Supplemental Paper

Bonus Lectures

The following non-accredited legal-education webinar replays are available for viewing and may qualify for attorney self-study hours pursuant to Texas MCLE Regulation 2.2.

Bonus Lecture 1: 

• Successful Themes and Theories
• Successful Themes and Theories PowerPoint (may be shared with others) 

Bonus Lecture 2:

• How to Build a CPS Notebook 
• How to Build a CPS Trial Notebook PowerPoint (may be shared with others)

Bonus Lecture 3:

• Basics of Jury Selection
• Basics of Jury Selection PowerPoint (may be shared with others) 

Supplemental Material

• Laying Your Foundation Cheat Sheet (may be shared with others) 
• How to Share Content on Zoom
• Using Annotation Tools on Zoom 
• How to Change your Zoom Video Layout (How to Hide Non-Video Participants/Speaker View and Gallery View) 

Children’s Commission Resources

• Attorney-Client Materials and Attorney Practice Tool Kits 
• Texas Child Welfare Law Bench Book and Bench Cards
• On-Demand Training and MCLE
• Legal Training Support
• Conference Scholarships 
• Children's Commission Conversations Podcast
• Resource Letters for Judges and Attorneys