Trauma-informed lawyering: Supporting clients through compensation claims

To better understand my clients, I spoke with a behaviour practitioner, who provided me with invaluable insight to assist me in providing better support. I see only significant benefits if I can share this insight with my law colleagues, which will hopefully aid many of us in assisting our clients in navigating a challenging time in their lives.

The following advice offers a practical framework grounded in empathy, transparency, and empowerment without compromising professional boundaries.

Understanding trauma in a legal context

Trauma is more than the injury or event itself – it’s the long-lasting emotional, cognitive, and physiological impact of experiencing a traumatic event. Car accidents, workplace injuries, injuries in public or medical negligence are traumatic events that can leave individuals feeling unsafe, powerless, and overwhelmed.

Trauma can present in many ways through real or perceived threat of danger, serious injury, or death that undermines the person’s ability to feel safe and to connect with others. It can result from an event or series of events experienced by an individual as physically, emotionally, or life-threatening.

As lawyers, we often ask clients to revisit these events in detail, engage with insurance providers, undergo medicolegal assessments, and make sense of a complex system that our clients often don’t understand. If done without trauma-awareness, these otherwise routine processes can retraumatise the client.

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Clients may not explicitly disclose trauma, but you might notice signs such as:

• Difficulty recalling details about the incident or organising their thoughts (e.g. jumping around a lot and recalling events out of chronological order).
• Avoidance or delay in providing documents or returning calls.
• Emotional outbursts or becoming withdrawn, sometimes in appointments or meetings.
• Resistance or mistrust towards the legal process or system.

Rather than viewing these behaviours as difficult or non-compliant, trauma-informed lawyering asks us to view them through a lens of compassion and understanding.

A trauma-informed approach

Trauma-informed care is a universal approach taken by practitioners to support and avoid retraumatising individuals who have experienced trauma appropriately.

Trauma can impact a person’s brain in many ways, including:

• Increased agitation, vigilance, irritability, startle response and neophobia (fear of new things).
• Decreased memory, reality-testing, sense of wellbeing, emotional regulation, explicit experiential, and learning.

People who experience trauma view their world as an unpredictable and threatening place. By understanding trauma and its effects, we can implement a trauma-informed approach in the legal setting.

1. Safety: Emotional and psychological safety in every interaction. This is not a one-size-fits-all approach, and we need to be adaptable to each client’s differing needs.
2. Trustworthiness and transparency: Communicate openly, manage expectations, and follow through. Our clients already tend to have a lack of trust, so it is more important than ever to show them that they can trust us and that we have their best interests at the forefront.
3. Empowerment and choice: Involve clients in decision making and respect their autonomy. We can provide recommendations, but it is important to empower our clients to use their voice.
4. Collaboration: Approach the lawyer-client relationship as a partnership, not a hierarchy. Clients often walk into a law firm anxious and uncertain. I always try to start with a bit of an “ice breaker”, so to speak – an easy conversation that breaks down any barriers.
5. Cultural sensitivity: Be attuned to individual and cultural differences that shape a client’s experience. This is not always immediately apparent and can change throughout the claim process.
6. Peer support and connection: Know when and how to refer clients to external support services, such as raising a concern with a client’s treating team if you are concerned about something.

These principles don’t change the legal process; they humanise it.

Practical strategies for lawyers

1. Create a safe and predictable environment.

A client experiencing trauma needs to feel that your office, physically and emotionally, is a safe space. Consider:

• Offering a calm, private setting for meetings.
• Being punctual and organised to convey reliability.
• Avoiding sudden or ambiguous changes in plans or legal strategy.
• Allowing support people to accompany clients if requested.

Safety breeds trust, and trust is essential for effective representation. We can’t expect clients to be open and honest with us if we don’t mirror that.

2. Explain legal processes clearly, and repeatedly.

Trauma can affect memory and processing, so consistently:

• Break complex procedures into small, manageable steps.
• Use plain language explanations, both verbal and written. I often use brochures containing flow charts to reinforce verbal explanations.
• Reiterate key points across multiple meetings – sometimes I need to go over things a couple of times before I am confident that what I am explaining is correctly understood.
• Provide written follow-ups summarising discussions and next steps.

Clients who understand the process are less likely to disengage or feel overwhelmed.

3. Practise active listening and empathy.

When discussing the incident or injury:

• Ask open-ended, non-judgmental questions: “What are you comfortable sharing today?”
• Let the client guide how much detail they provide and when – giving clients control can help them feel more in control of a situation that they feel is predominantly the opposite.
• Acknowledge distress without minimising: “I can see this is difficult to discuss. We can take our time when you are ready.”

Empathy does not compromise legal objectivity; it enhances your client’s sense of being heard and respected.

4. Support client autonomy and control.

Many clients feel a loss of control following a traumatic incident. We can help restore it by:

• Offering choices (e.g., meeting formats, timing, decision timelines) can also help clients feel a sense of autonomy in a situation that feels out of their control.
• Checking in before taking major steps, such as: “Are you OK with us proceeding this way?” and “Is there anything you would like us to do differently?”
• Encouraging questions and clarifying options before they commit to decisions.

This collaborative model not only improves decision making but also strengthens the lawyer-client relationship.

5. Be flexible with memory and documentation.

Trauma can impair memory and concentration. Clients may:

• Forget dates or details.
• Delay returning documents.
• Struggle with timelines.

Rather than a standard approach to following up, you could:

• Offer tools like checklists, reminders, or templates if you feel they might assist your client.
• Be patient and allow extra time for recall or clarification. Rather than following up every two weeks, as a standard approach, give them a little longer if you can afford to.
• Create structured conversations to help with organisation, such as, “Let’s walk through this step-by-step.”

6. Build multidisciplinary connections.

You are not expected to be a psychologist, but your role as a legal advocate places you in a position to refer or recommend support. Where appropriate:

• Maintain a list of psychologists, social workers, or support coordinators/case managers.
• With consent, collaborate with medical and allied health professionals.
• Educate clients on their rights to therapeutic support alongside legal proceedings.
• If a client is having difficulty coordinating treatment and rehabilitation, suggest engaging a case manager to assist them.

Holistic recovery increases the likelihood of a successful and sustained legal outcome.

7. Maintain professional boundaries and prevent burnout

Working closely with traumatised clients can expose you to secondary trauma. Protect your wellbeing by:

• Engaging in regular peer debriefing as soon as practically possible. I tend to debrief with a colleague straight after a confronting interaction with a client, rather than sitting on it for a more extended period.
• Setting realistic expectations and emotional boundaries for yourself – if you can, avoid putting yourself in situations where you are exposed to secondary trauma at times when you are being impacted by external factors, e.g. unrelated stress, pain, sickness, etc.
• Practising self-care and encouraging workplace cultures that do the same.

Sustainable practice benefits both you and your clients

In summary, trauma-informed legal practice is a shift in mindset. It asks us as lawyers to see our clients as people navigating pain, fear, and hope for resolution.

By embedding trauma-informed principles into your practice, through clear communication, safe environments, collaborative decision-making, and holistic referrals, you not only meet your legal obligations but also elevate your role as a trusted advocate.

In a system that can often feel cold and complex, your trauma-informed approach may be the one thing that reminds your client they are not alone and that you are human too.

Libby Thomas is an associate lawyer at Travis Schultz & Partners.