Did He Ever Hit You? Exploring the Attitudes of Lawyers in the Assessment of the Seriousness of Threats and Violent Histories in Domestic Violence Cases

Abstract

Domestic violence is a common phenomenon in societies where patriarchy lingers in personal, social and legal systems. Despite specific laws against intimate partner violence in most countries, women are significantly more likely than men to suffer from abuse, violence or to be murdered during or following personal relationships.1 Women who experience domestic violence often do not disclose it to anyone including their lawyers. Nearly a third of people seeking assistance in family law disputes with complex issues make use of lawyers.2 Consequently lawyers need to be sensitive to signs of abusive or controlling relationships during client interviews and respond carefully to clients who report controlling behaviour by their former partner or who otherwise indicate there have been threats or actual violence in the past. Due to a diversity of views about domestic violence in society it is likely legal practitioners hold a range of beliefs on what constitutes the warning signs for serious domestic violence including risk of serious injury or death. This project adds to the research by Parkinson et al in 20113 and complements that by Kaspiew et al in 2015,4 to provide an empirical examination of the diversity of lawyers’ perceptions of serious risk in domestic violence. It examines their views on what works best in determining risk and in training lawyers to identify risk in domestic violence practice.

The aim of this project is to identify lawyers’ perceptions of their preparedness and confidence to assess clients for domestic violence and to identify high-risk situations. Researchers analysed data from surveys and interview transcripts with experienced lawyers in all Australian states and territories who shared their practical knowledge and opinions based on their training and experience. This paper concentrates on the contributions relevant to family law practice and includes the occasional contrary views from a criminal law perspective. Legal practice can be fluid and while we focus on family law practice some lawyers will not have a practice confined to family law and so we cannot exclude the often differing views of lawyers who previously or at the time of this research did mostly criminal law. The research explores lawyers’ experiences of training and support to assess serious threat in domestic violence cases. It examines the value of continuing professional development and other training by employer organisations to help lawyers screen, assess and respond appropriately to domestic violence risk. It investigates the extent of accumulated, practice-based knowledge, by inviting legal professionals to reflect on what works in their experiences of helping clients at risk, and by asking their views on training specifically for assessment of domestic violence risk. Statistics and quotes in this paper are from this research unless otherwise stated.