A Guide to Trauma-Informed Lawyering

Advocating with Care

The legal system can be a daunting, overwhelming experience, especially for people who have endured trauma. Lawyers often represent clients who have been deeply harmed. Golden Eagle Rising has published a toolkit to help legal service providers to better understand trauma and to develop trauma-informed legal practices. This publication was supported by a grant from the Law Foundation of BC.

Understanding Trauma

The guidebook emphasizes that trauma can affect a person's speech, memory or behavior. Someone who is traumatized may struggle to recall events or appear to freeze or shut down when reminded of the traumatic event. What the person is often experiencing is a feeling of overwhelm, hopelessness or lack of control. Lawyers are not expected to resolve trauma like a therapist might, but would benefit from knowing how to minimize triggers or help clients recover more quickly when triggers happen.

Managing Trauma and Triggers

Preparing clients for potential challenges that might activate trauma responses can help a client be more resilient during difficult moments. With every client, Odette Dempsey-Caputo makes an effort to brief her clients in great detail what to expect, and in what order things might happen. Dempsey-Caputo is the executive director of the Okanagan Thompson Legal Clinic, which is also supported by the Law Foundation of BC. "Remember that it's your client's first time, even if you've been to the courtroom a thousand times." She suggests even showing clients photos of the courthouse online and pointing out things like where the judge or opposition are likely to sit.

However, no amount of preparation guarantees that the opposition will treat your client in a trauma-informed way. So before her clients take the stand, Dempsey-Caputo reminds her clients of all the tools they have at their disposal to regulate their emotions or ground themselves, if they start to feel acute anxiety during a legal proceeding. This includes the permission to pause, take a drink of water or even cry on the stand. "Unless you tell your client that you can do these things, they don't," she says.

Being Flexible

Knowing when you can offer flexibility can be the trick to better supporting your clients, in Dempsey-Caputo's view. If a client is having difficulty sharing their story, she encourages them to map the timeline out in the comfort of the client's own home instead. "Lawyers hate this practice, but you don't get the best story from your clients in a board room either," she says.

When interviewing clients, balance both your need for details and the client's ability to recall and share. "I find lawyers really want to go into the details, but a lot of the time you only need an overarching understanding of what the violence was," Dempsey-Caputo says.

Being Considerate

Reducing and managing events that can produce a trauma response often boils down to being thoughtful about the client's experience. The legal process often means a target will be in the same room as the offender or shown graphic evidence of their own experience. Dempsey-Caputo advises timing things so that for instance, a client who has experienced domestic violence enters the courthouse only right at the moment that the judge will be overseeing the case to minimize time spent in the same place as the offender.

In one unusual case, Dempsey-Caputo recalls a situation where the victim would be cross-examined by the offender, as the offender chose to represent himself to turn over a protection order. By thinking ahead, she was able to correct the situation before it happened.

Selfcare for Lawyers

Working with trauma can take an emotional toll, making selfcare a critical component of a trauma-informed legal practice. Vicarious trauma commonly happens to professionals who work directly with traumatized clients, and can lead to burnout and reduced effectiveness. Dempsey-Caputo emphasizes the importance of lawyers treating well-being as a priority by recognizing personal limits, seeking counseling, and maintaining professional boundaries. "Better to help only 20 people and miss 5, than to end up on medical leave for three months and help no one."