What Is a Trauma-Informed Approach to Legal Representation?

Being trauma-informed involves understanding how past trauma may shape present behaviors or responses. It is a framework, not a credential, used by legal, medical and counseling professionals. The six key principles of trauma-informed representation include:

• Safety: Clients and staff feel physically and mentally secure.
• Trustworthiness and transparency: Decisions are made with transparency to build and maintain trust between staff and trauma victims.
• Peer support: People with shared experiences are present and viewed as critical.
• Collaboration and mutuality: Staff and clients are viewed as equally important to decision-making.
• Empowerment, voice, and choice: Clients and staff are resilient and can heal from trauma.
• Cultural, historical, and gender issues: Biases and stereotypes are acknowledged and managed.

Many individuals who have experienced trauma are challenged when they try to establish healthy, transparent relationships.

Trauma-informed principles aim to avoid re-traumatizing the client during interviews, depositions and trial preparation related to sexual abuse cases. Trauma-informed lawyers understand that creating a safe environment is critical to successfully engaging with trauma survivors and guiding them through the legal process.

When survivors of sexual abuse are made to feel physically, socially, or emotionally unsafe, they may be at a greater risk of becoming re-traumatized. Lawyers can avoid re-traumatizing clients by incorporating trauma-informed principles – continual attention, a caring and respectful attitude and a high degree of sensitivity – during all attorney-client interactions.

Trauma-informed representation requires attorneys to implement certain changes in practice, such as:

• Allowing structured breaks: Divide interviews and preparations into shorter sessions. Stepping away more often can help reduce the client’s risk of re-traumatization from repeating the story of their traumatic event over and over again.
• Asking the right questions: When questioning a client, avoid asking anything unnecessary that may re-traumatize the survivor.
• Empowering client control: Trauma-informed legal professionals empower clients by encouraging them to participate in and make decisions about their cases.
• Listening: Traumatized clients need to be heard. One way to provide them with a safe place to open up and be vulnerable is to listen to what they have to say.
• Using trained advocates: Trauma-informed legal professionals are trained to employ caring and sensitivity in their interactions with clients. Their awareness can help build trust and reduce the stigma associated with sexual abuse.

The trauma-informed approach recognizes the frequency and unique aspects of trauma. It fosters a safe, transparent, and collaborative environment for those involved in civil proceedings. When legal professionals understand the needs of people who have experienced physical and emotional trauma, they can more compassionately serve their clients.

Trauma-informed lawyering practices give attorneys the opportunity to connect with clients and enhance their services. Some of the benefits of trauma-informed lawyering include:

• Positive client well-being: Clients may be less likely to be re-traumatized when trauma-informed lawyering techniques are applied.
• Improved communication: Clients of trauma-informed attorneys may be more comfortable about providing useful information to strengthen their case.
• Stronger attorney-client trust: Clients often hold trauma-informed lawyers in high regard and build stronger attorney-client relationships with them.
• Greater client engagement and resilience during the legal process: Trauma-informed lawyers are often able to form meaningful, collaborative relationships with clients.
• More compelling testimony: Clients who have a strong relationship with their attorneys are more likely to fully share their experiences in court.
• Better case outcomes: Trauma-informed lawyers strive to leave their clients in a better place than where they found them.

Motley Rice attorneys and staff use trauma-informed practices to help survivors of sexual abuse. A trauma-informed approach in law is designed to reduce re-traumatization, acknowledge the role of trauma in the attorney-client relationship, and improve client service.

Ongoing shifts in legal education and policy are making trauma-informed law increasingly prevalent.

How trauma-informed practices affect litigation

Trauma-informed principles affect the way attorneys interact with clients, witnesses and opposing parties in depositions, mediations and trials. Some practical applications of trauma-informed principles in civil litigation contexts include:

• Adjusting deposition settings to reduce anxiety: Provide accommodations to increase the client’s physical and emotional comfort during various proceedings.
• Advocating for client needs during discovery and settlement negotiations: Give clients frequent breaks during emotional discussions or extended meetings.
• Client choice: Respecting client choices regarding preferred methods of communication, attorney representation, selection of meeting times and locations, and understanding their limited participation in trial outside of testifying.
• Preparing survivors for testimony in a supportive, empowering way: Offer sufficient time for preparation, describe the courtroom environment and arrange for mental health support if necessary.
• Presenting trauma-related evidence or expert testimony: Understand that certain topics may re-traumatize the client and be prepared to provide support.
• Prioritizing transparency: Describe the legal process to the client in detail, explaining potential outcomes.
• Promoting collaboration: Partner with the client throughout the legal process, encouraging, respecting and prioritizing their input and contributions.
• Tailoring strategies to client needs: Revise your approach according to the client’s mental state and possible trauma responses.

Considering the needs of clients through a trauma-informed lens can help legal professionals make litigation more accessible and humane for survivors of sexual abuse.

Motley Rice attorneys who represent sexual abuse survivors use trauma-informed legal practices that prioritize the client relationship and protect the survivor’s mental and emotional health.

We have advocated on behalf of survivors of sexual abuse in institutional settings, including schools and colleges, youth organizations, and religious organizations. Our legal team understands the trauma that survivors face. We work tirelessly to hold powerful entities accountable for enabling abuse and getting the justice survivors deserve.

Motley Rice has represented:

• Survivors of sexual abuse in the Boy Scouts of America, helping clients file claims and navigate the organization’s bankruptcy process
• Students abused by junior high and high school teachers, including recent lawsuits against educators accused of long-term misconduct
• Individuals seeking justice under newly enacted lookback window laws, which provide survivors the opportunity to file claims previously barred by expired statutes of limitations
• Survivors of abuse involving the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), also known as the Mormon Church

Our team has experience working with complex litigation involving multiple defendants, institutional coverups, and widespread patterns of abuse. We take a trauma-informed approach to every case, prioritizing survivor privacy and emotional well-being throughout the legal process.

Read more about our sexual abuse litigation experience.