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A dispassionate application of the law to the facts will only get you so far in the field of social justice law. To be truly effective, you must dig deep, listen, probe and bear witness to clients’ trauma.
But what effect does this have on the lawyers involved, and what can we do to protect ourselves and colleagues from the impact of vicarious trauma? These are the issues addressed in this book.
If you manage staff who represent traumatised clients, you may not be surprised to learn that lawyers exposed to vicarious trauma experience significantly higher levels of depression, anxiety and stress; but you should at least be concerned to learn that a small pilot study of UK asylum lawyers found that 34.3% met the criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder.
Family Law Week: LAPG launches 2021 Legal Aid Census to show true state of social justice sector familylawweek.co.uk - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from familylawweek.co.uk Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
For some time, it has been government policy to privilege the interests of private landlords over other homeowners. This process began in the mid-1990s when banks introduced buy-to-let mortgages, which assessed buyers’ creditworthiness on the rental yield from the property, rather than their existing income. Easy finance gave landlords an advantage over first-time buyers.
Buy-to-let landlords have also enjoyed tax relief: mortgage interest relief, and a wear-and-tear allowance. The tax breaks have diminished in comparison to what they once were, but the broad picture remains the same. Although the UK’s 2.5 million landlords are a small minority, because the market has been loaded in their favour, they were responsible for 18% of all residential property purchases by the end of 2019.
Content warning: lawyers shouldn t normalise traumatic material lawgazette.co.uk - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from lawgazette.co.uk Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.