Trauma-informed lawyer client relationships
This article from the ABA Child Law Practice Group on establishing a trauma-informed lawyer-client relationship for child welfare or youth justice issues. It seems that a number of the suggestions and practices could be adapted to other areas of law that could benefit from trauma-informed practices. If trauma-informed legal practices are established piecemeal for each different area of law then we may miss an opportunity to develop best practices for the legal community as a whole.
“The legal system is designed to protect men from the superior power of the state but not to protect women or children from the superior power of men. It therefore provides strong guarantees for the rights of the accused but essentially no guarantees for the rights of the victim. If one set out by design to devise a system for provoking intrusive post-traumatic symptoms, one could not do better than a court of law.”