Working to Avoid Collateral Emotional Harm to Clients: Cases and Recommendations for the Personal Injury Attorney

Abstract

Attorneys working in the area of personal injury face complex cases in addition to many potential ethical and practice hazards. They are trained, educated, and have experience in handling and discharging their responsibilities in such cases to the best advantage of their clients, whether plaintiff or defense, while maintaining a professional integrity and appropriate ethical stance. Ideally, personal injury attorneys will practice from a position of virtue, serving their clients in their efforts to recover and regain their quality of life. Nevertheless, factors such as financial and work pressures can intervene, leading to inappropriate conduct that may harm their clients and risk professional alienation and malpractice. In the present article, seven case examples are provided that illustrate how personal injury attorneys working for plaintiffs can act in unethical and harmful ways, ultimately endangering their practice. The article is oriented to attorneys at all phases of their careers and includes recommendations for avoiding the types of harm and unethical practice that have been described. Also, the article presents strategies that psychologists treating these patients can take to remedy further emotional damage to patients.

Exploring Lawyer–Client Interaction

“…Lastly, our participants preferred to be updated at least every 2 months, even if there had not been any developments. This finding is confirmed by two articles that stated a need for timely updates (Schatman, 2009 ; Shapiro et al, 1994 ).…”

“…‘Independence’ could be the counterpart of the problematic lawyer behavior ‘collusion with the defense counsel’, as addressed by Schatman ( 2009 ), although he discussed a rather extreme notion of misconduct and conspiracy. Another study reported that ‘clients may sometimes suspect that lawyers recommend a particular course of action because they are friends with the opposing attorney, afraid to take a case to court, afraid of hurting their own relationship with the opposing client, or seeking to aggrandize their own reputation’ (Sternlight & Robbennolt, 2008 , pp.…”

“…However, studies that controlled for injury severity have found a similar effect (Bernacki & Tao, 2008 ). Other explanations were that lawyers may implicitly encourage their clients to maintain sickness behavior because ‘going back to work will damage your case’ (Aurbach, 2011 ), that lawyers may inflict emotional harm to clients by communicating poorly (Schatman, 2009 ), or that they may not sufficiently take into account the emotional dimension and non-material needs (Akkermans, 2009 ).…”

Whither Suffering? The Potential Impact of Tort Reform on the Emotional and Existential Healing of Traumatically Injured Chronic Pain Patients

“…The literature regarding the American legal system's tendency to victimize the victim is certainly abundant, particularly regarding crime victims (e.g., Beloof 2005;Frazier and Haney 1996;Mitchell 2007). Regarding personal injury litigation, there exists a perhaps equally prodigious body of literature describing plaintiff victimization by the legal system (e.g., Hans and Dee 2000;Hickling et al 2006;Schatman 2009;Tumlin and Kvaal 2004). Conceivably, the situation which personal injury plaintiffs perceive as most victimizing is the Independent Medical Examination (IME).…”