“Civil litigation often has profound psychological consequences for plaintiffs and defendants alike,” wrote Larry Strasburger, M.D., in a psychiatry and law journal.1 In a litigious society, few areas of the law escape emotional consequences.

Workman’s comp cases deal with injury, malpractice of one’s professional identity, adoption, wills, and trusts about who loves whom. Divorce dissolves a union and, if not careful, leaves emotional carnage for decades.

“The legal process itself is often a trauma,” Strasburger wrote. It’s disruptive, sapping energy and derailing positivity. Symptoms amidst the combat: sleeplessness, anxiety, humiliation, lack of concentration, rage, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

People need attorneys to make matters official and legal and to protect their rights when they are trampled.

However, most individuals have the capacity to work out their affairs to mutual agreement, using a lawyer to advise and seal the deal. Sadly, that doesn’t happen often enough. Ask any region that has tried to adopt collaborative law only to have lawyers sabotage it. More progressive areas have implemented this modality, yet a cadre of attorneys feel threatened by it.

“Indeed, it may be in a litigator’s self-interest to attract a new client rather than to have a potential client, appropriately informed about expected stress, decide to resolve the problem in some way other than litigation,” Strasburger expressed.

Therapists routinely see the fallout caused by injury, harassment, divorce, custody, and other civil litigation. In therapy, you learn strategies to remain centered and healthy and move forward when the court process keeps you stalled or backed up, as it did in the aftermath of the pandemic.

Opposing........

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