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Clark County Law Library

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Book Review by Frank Alan Herch, Director of the Clark County Law Library:

Our courts are experiencing more and more citizen litigants who are appearing without lawyers.  Citizens are representing themselves because they either cannot afford legal counsel or because they distrust lawyers and/or the legal system.

Court administrators, judges, court clerks and even law librarians involved in performing triage for these self-litigants are searching for strategies to alleviate the burden and stress of the court system of potentially poorly prepared citizen litigants.  All courthouse personnel and public interest lawyers who wish to see citizen litigants given the proper opportunities for their day in court will find some background material and answers to help in solving this growing problem through the device of Karin Huffer's treatise.  Overcoming the Devastation of Legal Abuse Syndrome:  Beyond Rage .

Karin Huffer, MS/MFT, is a marital therapist with over twenty years' experience in assisting her patients to cope with their rage over prolonged litigation.  She has performed "Beyond Rage" seminars to correct the stress and pain suffered by those she has identified as suffering from a cumulative post-traumatic stress disorder she has identified as Legal Abuse Syndrome.

Karin Huffer has, therefore, drawn some provocative and compelling portraits of the behavior and pain evidenced by citizen litigants.  She calls upon her psychoanalytical skills and experience to describe the tortured scenarios of seven different litigants.

Karin Huffer offers strategies for recovery, suggests resources to empower the citizen litigant and provides worksheets and checklists for the vendor to evaluate their own rage.  She has created an impassioned view of the mindset of the citizen litigant of the 1990's.

Hopefully, this book represents the tip of the iceberg of a dialogue between the courts and those who offer counsel and assistance to these litigants who feel forced to act without proper legal representation.  This book should be read by all judges, law clerks, court clerks, court administrators, law librarians, legal service lawyers confronted with distraught, litigious citizens and by all attorneys who contemplate pro bono or "unbundled" representation of their clients.