The Client

• Author: Nathalie Des Rosiers; Louise Langevin
• Pages: 1-1

Parti

The

Client

1.

Introduction

- A

certain type

of

preparation

is

needed

to

repre-

sent

the

legal

interests

of a

child victim

or an

adult survivor

of

sex-

ual

abuse,

a

battered

woman,

or the

parents

of a

sexually abused

child.1

To

ensure

the

therapeutic rehabilitation

of

these types

of

clients,

an

attorney must know

how to

identify

and

minimize

the

dangers within

the

judicial

system.2

This task

can be

facilitated

through

a

better understanding

of the

social problems

and the

psy-

chological dynamics

affecting

the

victim,

and

through some

reflec-

tion

on the

best

way to

manage

the

attorney-client

relationship

in

these

types

of

cases.

The

purpose

of

Part

I of

this

book

is,

first,

to

describe

the

context

and

impact

of

sexual

and

spousal abuse and,

second,

to

reflect

upon

the

attorney's role

in the

development

and

progress

of a

civil

suit.

1. See

Kimberly

A.

Crnich, "Redressing

the

Undressing:

A

Primer

on the

Representation

of

Adult Survivors

of

Childhood Sexual Abuse," (1992)

14

Women's

Rights

Law

Reporter

65.

2.

For a

legal approach

that

attempts

to

eliminate

the

non-therapeutic

effects

of

the

legal process

on

participants,

see

David

B.

Wexler

and

Bruce

J.

Winnick,

Law in a

Therapeutic

Key

(Durham,

NC:

Carolina Academic

Press,

1996).

1