Other For Those That Have Had Traumatic Complex And Lengthy Legal Battles.....

[C.M]

I was googling resources with legal battles. Perhaps others have allso had added traumas and retraumas on top of original ones because of related legal issues.
I look forward to a read of this (when able to locate a copy and/or buy it). Breathing a sense of relief as this book looks to be a support.

“Overcoming the Devastation of Legal Abuse Syndrome” by Karin D. Huffer 1995

"From the Publisher
You're familiar with the look of abject frustration which often paints the faces of litigants. You're also familiar with the clenched teeth, the nervous ramblings, and the occasional blasts of profanity. Thanks to Ms. Huffer, we now have a clinical name for these behaviors. They're symptoms of a larger psychological disorder she has named Legal Abuse Syndrome. If Huffer's research is accurate, citizens who have prolonged and unsuccessful experiences with the courts run the risk of developing a post traumatic stress disorder similar to combat fatigue. To put it bluntly, having to do "battle" with a system whose basic operating procedures are cloaked in arcane language and guarded by the spectre of the Unauthorized Practice of Law can be damaging to your psyche! Her book, Overcoming the Devastation of Legal Abuse Syndrome is a detailed examination of this syndrome and its impact on citizen litigants. It should be in the hands of every therapist, social worker, attorney, judge, and politician in the nation. It mostly belongs in the hands of those who are hurting as a result of a judicial system that does not serve the taxpayer."

I allso see she has a couple of youtube talks and will watch these when free (sharing this in case others on here may find this helpfull).

 

[Friday]

she has named Legal Abuse Syndrome. If Huffer's research is accurate, citizens who have prolonged and unsuccessful experiences with the courts run the risk of developing a post traumatic stress disorder similar to combat fatigue. To put it bluntly, having to do "battle" with a system whose basic operating procedures are cloaked in arcane language and guarded by the spectre of the Unauthorized Practice of Law can be damaging to your psyche!

My eyes just rolled so far back into my head I almost seized.

***

I hate court. Hate, despise, loathe... And I've been on the receiving end of a court system where being found guilty isn't the pansy ass American justice system & their day spa resort style prisons... As well as the sheer f*cking idiocy of American Family Court, where the results of their asinine rulings send kids to their abusers... And no. Just no. There is no way in hell that being in court even begins to relate to combat, being beaten, raped, tortured, abused, shot, stabbed, burned, sold, screaming metal, crushed bodies, up to your f*cking eyeballs in death, pain, blood, shit, slime, decay... Just no. Court all by its f*cking lonesome the same kind of trauma? That's one of the most retarded things I've ever read.

 

[C.M]

The justice system here in New Zealand is pathetic. I went through lengthy battles over nine years with one case and this was related to intimate violations (unable to share more due to permanent court ordered name suppression) and another was the pathetic way the justice systems dealt with the offender in the robbery and assault. I have allso gone through the family court and this was allso traumatic.
I survived these yet the traumas and retraumas of justice systems throughout delayed what should have been time/energy for healing/perhaps minimising, the effects (mental, emotional and physical) of the original traumas.
I will read the book in the trust there may be supportive information/support and shared the title, author if anyone else has gone through similar.

 

[Neverthesame]

Does court suck? Yes.

Would I rather be trapped in a courtroom with a bunch of bloodsucking lawyers for a year. Or a mass casualty situation for 10 minutes?

I'll take the lawyers. Without hesitation.

One is horror, the other is tedious and irritating.

One, small decisions cost lives. Choices one must live with forever. As in dead. Not coming back, forever and ever. No taking it back, no matter how much you beg God to do so.

The other, costs money. Which is a replaceable commodity. A thing.

Sorry, but no.

 

[Fadeaway]

I think it is common for people to mistake other forms of emotional and stress related issues for PTSD.

 

[Thematrix]

@C.M. I think what you mean is that it is very harmful in that you are reliving your traumas in a prolonged way? Are you saying it is retraumatizing, invalidating and keeping you stuck in a sense in your trauma, which I think I read were assault and robbery? You would obviously be repeatedly triggered if it is related to the cause of your PTSD ?

After that many years yes that is very understandably not good for a PTSD sufferer. Does it seem like the past is not the past because it is still ongoing legally?

I hear you

 

[Ronin]

I will read the book in the trust there may be supportive information/support and shared the title, author if anyone else has gone through similar.

It is the utter appropriative, incorrect nonsense of the author and publisher people have issue with.

Not a fellow survivor trying to find info for their specific healing path, as you. :)

Or: All is well trying to find support. But not with comparing the incomparable.

 

[joeylittle]

it is common for people to mistake other forms of emotional and stress related issues for PTSD.

So very true. A metaphorical connection (combat 'battle', legal 'battle') has absolutely nothing to do with the factual experience of combat battle vs. legal battle.

It's nice for writers, very unhelpful for those who have lived the situations. On both sides.

 

[sedna]

Does court suck? Yes.

Would I rather be trapped in a courtroom with a bunch of bloodsucking lawy...

I like what you've said, and in most cases thats an accurate description. I've seen people lose everything they lived for in courtrooms, while sitting powerless to even be able to speak. They are a case when they sit there, and often they watch as a combination of truth and lies gets thrown back and forth until the decision is made about who they are and what their future will be.

More often than not, this is a theater performance by the attorneys, one will be a better thespian than the other. The judge sits and watches the performances, surveys the scripts, which are presented as factual evidence, then decides who provided better material and rewards the most convincing performance by letting him win.

The person who has just been informed that they have no legal rights to their children, or has to give everything they've worked for to someone else, or will be serving time in prison for something he or she did not do, is expected to instantly accept that this performance has determined their fate and no one is interested in what they have to say.

There is absolutely a cause for severe trauma in courtrooms.

The comparison to combat is not accurate. It is an undeserved compliment to attorneys and how they generally operate. The hapless people being represented are unable to do anything. They sit quietly or testify exactly what their lawyer told them to say.

The idea of battle in court suggests the attorneys are battling. Most of the time they are not. The description of what the author terms as " Legal Abuse " is really valid. I'm glad someone has put this out there like she did.

This is why, because it's only a matter of time before this becomes an established disorder. When it does, it will create a legal avenue that is a straight shot to holding attorneys accountable for misconduct. Suing an attorney is a nightmare, this will make it easier.

The channel that will be opened is using this diagnosis for someone as a means to have a case reviewed. Something like that entered into a legal case would mean a review of all parties including the judge, attorneys, mediators and county workers.

I have seen personally how these people throw around their power and create permanent changes in peoples lives based on their personalities and moods.

I also know for a fact that attorneys lie and routinely break laws in their negotiations. Even the best do it, some of them are loved by their clients, but not once did the truth matter in the courtroom.

If you have been devastated and have no way to change the outcome of that, and watched a farce of an elaborate game being played out to create that for you, then you've been traumatized. It is not combat and shouldn't be compared to it though.

 

[C.M]

Thanking you all for replies.
Firstly I have two apologies: I am sorry that I was sensitive to any perceived personal directed comments (does not excuse it totally yet I have just come out of a few days effects with the anniversary of the robbery and assault 1 September). Having reread comments I now understand these were directed at the quoted thoughts of the author/publisher Not myself. I am allso sorry about delay in response (will allso chat, in separate post, after this one, further clarifying my own life journey that led to this book being shared on the forum, as best as I am able). I am a little slow in typings; brain injuries have their challenging moments with the ptsd and related dissociation.

 

[C.M]

For easier typings and order, I will chronological this journey as best (intense, complex and awareness I have cout ordered name suppression as the survivor of one of the crimes):
Intimate violations and attempted manslaughter (name suppression). A rare case here in NZ. The offender was jailed. PTSD was diagnosed and All recognition (for needed counselling and any possible injury compensation) was denied by government. I had support from a barrister and he gave legitimate legal arguments throughout the district, high court and in the court of appeal application.

The government, were to be blunt, inhumane and no compassion. This took nine years; a very slow complex landmark case (and has since helped a couple of similar cases in this country). During this time there was media coverage, (intial coverage, updates and outcomes) I would watch, hear or read about it Yet I could not put my hand up and say "yes, this was happening to me". I had very few supports and the repeating of the crime and the need to justify intention harm and injuries added further to isolation and traumas.

In the midst of this I was allso robbed and assaulted in a busy mall at a money machine. The recidivist offender had escaped from his home detention (an alternative to prison where by they wear a security monitoring ankle bracelet); ripped off his ankle bracelet and jumped the back fence. Two days later (after him escaping) I am found unconscious on the concrete floor by the money machine after he violently assaulted me and robbed me of the $80 as it came out of the machine. He has been waiting at the money machine for half an hour before I arrived and ran through the mall to a waiting car; I confronted detectives with this as in premeditation they simply stated "no proof". They did say I was fortunate to have survived albeit with head injury, whiplash, loss of peripheral vision, broken elbow in two places. Our community should have been safe (from the offender) on that day and as I said to the press if it had happened to an elderly person or someone in a wheelchair they would not have survived.

Because of the robbery and assault I had to put the first crime and related legal challenges aside (for a year or so) and focus on the injuries, this included two years as an outpatient in a brain injury unit, being in cast for six weeks from the shoulder to wrist, and many months of physio. SMH as I reflect (it is hard typing this yet I am ok). The robbery and assault allso received media attention as it was an offender who had escaped home detention and here in this country, there have been a few that have escaped and fewer in our communities that have been intentionally harmed such as myself.
Perhaps this will do for now (there have been other traumas as an adult; a journey I would not wish upon anyone) and I trust I have made further sense and there is clarity with what I have shared as to the traumas, retraumas in legal challenges and taking on/standing up to government.

My heart goes out to you all, please take care and thankyou kindly for reading these posts.

 

[Neverthesame]

understand these were directed at the quoted thoughts of the author/publisher Not myself.

Yes. Absolutely. I was glad Cashew pointed that out.

Not annoyed with you at all. Only at the lackadaisical attitude shown by contemporary "researcher's" using words without researching the actual definition. Then plastering the world with a steaming pile of pseudo-intellectual, backyard psychiatry rubbish. Based on the misnomer of the word "trauma" being interchangeable with "unpleasant" in common speech. Attempting to then shove it back into place as medical fact, as applies to all people. Not someone such as yourself, who probably fits in a far more specific way. (Though that is supposition on my part. I lack the knowledge to say that as fact. After having read your latest post, I can certainly understand how something could impact you so hard, having hit so close to home.)

That's what irritated me. Not you.

I am sorry you have had to go through what you have. I don't doubt it's... disgusting. (don't know the word). To be forced to silence about something terrible that happened to you. By some fool who probably has no clue or care, of how much this has burdened you after the fact.

Thank you for taking the time and effort to explain further. It hasn't fallen on deaf ears.

Don't worry about the slow typing. I am a horrid typist. Different reason, but still slow. (Shaky hands, small phone screen.) People don't even look up anymore, when I make a typo and literally shout DAMN PHONE!!! Every 5 words or so.