Health / Wellness

Vicarious Post-Traumatic Stress -- Or Why There’s Such A High Rate Of Burnout Among Criminal Defense Attorneys

Given the nature of the job, direct and indirect stress go with the territory.  What can be done about it?

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It’s not easy being a criminal defense attorney. If you work for a public-defender organization, the case load is high, the pay not great, and frustrations abound.  It’s difficult to win; often you’re not favored by the judge or the law, and sometimes your client thinks you’re less than a “real” lawyer simply because he’s not paying for you.

You’re not only unappreciated but you might also be the target of physical attacks, anything from being spit on to being punched in the nose (as happened to a colleague) after a jury verdict.

With all that stress, no wonder there’s burnout caused by the direct stress of the job — what the attorney has to put up with on a day-to-day basis.  But then there’s also the indirect stress of dealing with traumatized clients.  Compassion fatigue, secondary traumatic stress (STS), and vicarious traumatization (VT) are all terms referring to the stress that occurs from working with traumatized people in terrible straits.

Being exposed to histories of abuse, neglect, poverty, and violence can affect attorneys.  According to studies on burnout (referred to in one study with the unfortunate acronym “BO”), dealing with trauma-exposed clients causes  “an accumulation of stress and the erosion of idealism characterized by fatigue, poor sleep, headaches, anxiety, irritability, depression, hopelessness, aggression, cynicism and substance abuse.”

A survey done in the early 2000s by Pace University found that in comparing criminal defense attorneys with mental health providers and social service workers (who also work with traumatized populations), the criminal defense attorneys experienced more symptoms of STS than the others.  This may be because their case loads are higher and they’re expected to come up with a very specific outcome — a win for the client.

I recently spoke to a public-defender organization in New York where new attorney hires were feeling the initial burn of BO and decided to address their administrators about it.

Instead of just telling the new attorneys to “man up,” office managers brought in an expert on post-traumatic stress.  Senior attorneys poo-pooed the idea as a sop for coddled millennials.  But after attending, even senior attorneys noted that that they, too, suffered symptoms of STS — clipped emotional bandwidth, short-temperedness with family, disturbed sleep, withdrawal, exhaustion, anxiety, and helplessness.  In spite of their initial skepticism, they found the session helpful.

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It’s clear that, given the nature of the job, direct and indirect stress go with the territory.  What can be done about it?

Step one is recognizing secondary traumatic stress is real, and should be addressed rather than repressed.  Providing forums for the “regular ventilation” (as the Pace study put it) of such feelings is a start.

Whether it’s training sessions with experts or simply grabbing a beer with colleagues to discuss the week’s high and lows, encouraging people to talk is a good idea.

Next, putting a ceiling on the number of cases any attorney can handle will do wonders.  Fewer cases equals less stress and less burnout.

There’s a certain machoness that goes along with criminal defense.  “Give me the toughest case and I’ll represent the guy,” is the general attitude.  But this if-you-can’t-stand-the-heat-get-out-of-the-kitchen perspective leads to a speedier onset of BO, a no-win for everyone.

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I find the attorneys who stick with the job of criminal defense the longest are those who know how to compartmentalize.  Leave the job at the office, go home, develop a fully separate life and set of passions that permit a respite from the day to day.

I don’t know any defense attorney who hasn’t cried (whether on the inside or the outside) at some point of his or her career.  But unless you come up with a way to deal with the pain of others, it’s time to explore other areas of law.  There’s always mergers and acquisitions.

Toni Messina has tried over 100 cases and has been practicing criminal law and immigration since 1990. You can follow her on Twitter: @tonitamess.

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