Handling Emotional Clients

Many clients seeking help at Legal Aid are there for a very legitimate reason.  Unfortunatley some of these people have experienced either emotional or physical abuse.  Others are in difficult situations involving family issues, housing, or finances.

This particular case stands out because it was very sad.  A daughter came to Legal Aid because her father recently passed away.  The father had re-married and the new wife made an effort to keep the children away from the father when he was sick and dying.  She also encouraged the father to change his will and give her everything.  Sometimes in difficult cases like this it was hard to remain impartial and professional. I would always make an extra effort to empathize and give the client plenty of time to tell the story.  These cases are more difficult when I relay the facts to Ralph and there is very little we can do at Legal Aid.  Since I've been a volunteer there for a longer amount of time, Ralph now asks me what I think we should do in every case.  I know our resources are limited as far as giving clients time with attorneys.  I make an extra effort to triage that precious attorney time to situations such as these.