Legal Victim Assistance Advocates, LLC

Our Mission is to ensure equal access to the judicial system, by moving toward a social model over medical model for providing accommodations under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

We promote a fair court process with an attitude of inclusion and tolerance. Our advocates enhance security, dignity and respect for every person. We support the economy of the court by improving communication, acting as liaisons, and we assist the court in eliminating risk of HIPPAA violations or exploitation of those with special needs.

Our mission is affirmed by the universal declaration of human rights, 1948, the convention on the elimination of discrimination against women of 1979, The ABA Resolution of 2002, The Americans with Disabilities Act Titles II & III, of 1990, the ADAAA of 2008, and the International Treaty for the Disabled of 2009.

Dr. Karin Huffer is the author of "Overcoming the Devastation of Legal Abuse Syndrome"

Dr. Karin Huffer represents clients under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) as an advocate and accommodation designer.

Legal Victim Assistance Advocates, LLC

20th Anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act

For generations, millions of people with disabilities lived as second-rate citizens in a society based on the promise that "All men are created equal" and where "Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness" are considered unalienable rights. People with disabilities were routinely sterilized and institutionalized. There were no laws to ensure access to or a benefit from the most basic of freedoms a majority of Americans have always taken for granted. Read more here

Dr. Karin Huffer

Chapter 1 - "Invisible Hostages" reveals the hostage condition that results from betrayals of trust and the quiet crimes. Symptoms of the hostage-stage psychological reactions are put forth with a list of the white-collar crimes, litigation/judicial atrocities and bureaucratic failings that cumulatively assault victims. The case of James graphically portrays the path from the initial affront through the aftermath of the crime. James went to law enforcement agencies, sued through the courts at huge expense, and found his situation worsened to the point of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Chapter 1 includes one cartoon and two illustrations.

Chapter 2 - "The Epidemic" illustrates the chemical changes that take place in the brain during prolonged victimization. It becomes clear that a profound sense of helplessness in the face of jeopardy causes post traumatic stress disorder. The longer the feeling of helplessness lasts, the more pronounced are the symptoms. Victims find themselves in the symptoms as they relate to their own experiences. James shares that at the time he needed the protection of his judicial system, it betrayed him. He was left unable to obtain justice. Extensive research supports the theory that "psycholegal" post traumatic stress disorder is a common occurrence in litigants and victims of the invisible crimes. The reader can look around and see the "cellophane-wrapped" victims who have moved beyond rage to an implosive, cyclical lifestyle. These victims usually remain invisible. The chapter includes one illustration.

In this book, we will explore cases that are shocking and fascinating. They illustrate abuses perpetrated by our legally instituted protective systems and the pain and suffering that results. Citizens are driven "Beyond Rage." However startling and moving our cases may be, we have only touched a segment of their lives and experiences. Each case has left unrevealed depth of trauma and complication that would be prohibitive in space and time to write about in one book.
This work results from my experiences of the past twenty years as a marriage and family therapist in private practice. Throughout my career, a certain discomfort gnawed at me regarding clients who attended my various groups and seminars. While the seminars dealt with the subjects of codependency, substance abuse, parenting, divorce adjustment, assertiveness, stress, or whatever the current topic dictated, there always remained the walking wounded. Those were clients, whose true source of pain was not recognized by family or friends. Worse, it was never clearly defined by helping professionals. With no diagnosis, their condition could not be targeted for treatment. Invisible trauma nebulously danced around the topics, never to be healed in these hungry participants.

It wasn't until a white-collar crime was perpetrated on my family that I saw these walking wounded with uncomfortably opened eyes. After nearly a decade of struggling with the justice system, and working with other such victims,I have concluded that the enormous betrayals and inefficiencies that make up bureaucratic post-crime experiences, are literally attacking the emotional health of this nation. Victims have no satisfying place to turn. Rage accumulates and its sequelae have reached epidemic proportions.

Dr. Karin Huffer

A therapist must, of course, check such observations against the danger of inaccurately projecting onto a client personal feelings or attitudes that go beyond the therapeutic use of self. I have done that. Even more uncomfortably now, i see the massive validation of my theory by participants in the "Beyond Rage" seminars. Still theoretical, but deadly serious, is the thesis of this book that victims in America are, first, assaulted by crime and, secondly, by abuses of power and authority administered by the systems their tax dollars support to provide due process of law. In short, they get a "double whammy."

People of principle find their decency, trustworthiness, responsibility, and use of their courts trounced by systems that perpetrate judicial and bureaucratic atrocities. Americans, who follow a code of conscience, encounter a profound imbalance between the abuses of power perpetrated by those entrusted with the systems and the prohibitive conscience of the ordinary person to violation of values and laws. At the heart of this book is the threatened psychic underpinning of the American citizen which is tied into the Constitutionally protected rights that we depend upon. To imperil the basic freedoms, which Americans are taught are their birthright, is to jeopardize conditions of trust and safety necessary for a healthy, productive life.

Victims challenge the finest of counseling techniques. The lack of closure combines with prolonged, cruel, and unusual punishment exerted by the court system. Ongoing strain of litigation then interfaces with psychological issues. Diagnoses are tricky and dynamic. Healing techniques and strategies are interrupted by the trauma of the proceedings or behaviors of court personnel. Stress reduction training is of marginal value for a litigant who will regularly be administered another dose of outrage. The best of family intervention is defeated if the family court renders a visitation arrangement that destroys continuity in the raising of the children or if the current custodial parent is harassed and stalked, unprotected by the law enforcement system.

Outrage is tough enough. Beyond rage is terribly painful territory. I caution the reader that to earnestly use this self-help material for healing purposes will be challenging. On the other hand, if you choose to stay beyond rage, you exist in a type of living death. So victims of the systems are caught between a tough place and a really hard place. Go slowly, get involved in groups, if possible, but don't let your lifeblood be stripped from you without a fight. This book will help to get you back on your fighting feet. You won't change massive systems or reform your country in all likelihood. However, when all of the trauma has been processed, you will become an empowered, effective individual again.

More and more, helping professionals are being confronted by "psycholegal" issues. Patients are driven beyond rage over an extended period of time during which victims travel an isolated road. The impact of the invisible assaults usually are ignored.

Vigilante violence results when the needs of the majority are not being met by the systems (Tucker). What of the gentle and decent person who values a law abiding mode of life? Unless the unique needs of these victims are identified and healing processes made accessible to them, the cost in pain, suffering, disillusionment, and shutdown of creativity to the individual and society is immeasurable.

~ Karin Pearson Huffer

National Alliance on Mental Illness

From its inception in 1979, NAMI has been dedicated to improving the lives of individuals and families affected by mental illness.

For three decades, NAMI has established itself as the most formidable grassroots mental health advocacy organization in the country. Dedication, steadfast commitment and unceasing belief in NAMI's mission by grassroots advocates have produced profound changes. NAMI's greatest strength is the dedication of our grassroots leaders and members. We are the families, friends and individuals that serve to strengthen communities across the country. Read more here

The Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law is a nonprofit organization devoted to improving the lives of people with mental illnesses through changes in policy and law. For nearly four decades our legal and policy advocates have engaged in impact litigation, policy reform and public education to ensure the rights of people with mental illnesses in all areas of life, including housing, employment, education, public systems, health care, the judiciary and more. Read more here

Disabled World

Disability studies is a relatively new interdisciplinary academic field focusing on the roles of people with disabilities in history, literature, social policy, law, architecture, and other disciplines. Although it has many antecedents, disability studies began to flourish toward the end of the twentieth century.

Issues and debates surrounding disabilities include social and political rights, social inclusion and citizenship. In developed countries, the debate has moved beyond concerns about the perceived cost of maintaining dependent people with disabilities to efforts of finding ways to ensure people with disabilities participate in and contribute to today's society in all spheres of life.

In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, a number of countries have passed laws aimed at reducing discrimination against people with disabilities. These laws have begun to appear as the notion of civil rights has become more influential globally.

Disability Rights: The Disability Rights Movement aims to improve the quality of life of people with disabilities and to confront disadvantages and discrimination. A major concern is achieving civil rights for people with disabilities. This is further broken down into issues of accessibility in transportation, architecture, and the physical environment and equal opportunities in employment, education, and housing. Access to public areas such as city streets and public buildings and rest rooms are some of the more visible changes brought about in recent decades. A noticeable change in some parts of the world is the installation of elevators, transit lifts, wheelchair ramps and curb cuts, allowing people in wheelchairs and with other mobility impairments to use public sidewalks and public transit more easily and more safely.

President Roosevelt

List of Famous People with Disabilities

Franklin D. Roosevelt's paralytic illness on Wikipedia

Lives Restored
The New York Times

A series profiling people who are functioning normally despite severe mental illness and have chosen to speak out about their struggles. Read more here

Expert on Mental Illness Reveals Her Own Fight
The New York Times
by Benedict Carey
June 23, 2011

HARTFORD — Are you one of us?

The patient wanted to know, and her therapist — Marsha M. Linehan of the University of Washington, creator of a treatment used worldwide for severely suicidal people — had a ready answer. It was the one she always used to cut the question short, whether a patient asked it hopefully, accusingly or knowingly, having glimpsed the macramé of faded burns, cuts and welts on Dr. Linehan’s arms:

"You mean, have I suffered?"

"No, Marsha," the patient replied, in an encounter last spring. "I mean one of us. Like us. Because if you were, it would give all of us so much hope."

"That did it," said Dr. Linehan, 68, who told her story in public for the first time last week before an audience of friends, family and doctors at the Institute of Living, the Hartford clinic where she was first treated for extreme social withdrawal at age 17. "So many people have begged me to come forward, and I just thought — well, I have to do this. I owe it to them. I cannot die a coward." Read more here

No one knows how many people with severe mental illness live what appear to be normal, successful lives, because such people are not in the habit of announcing themselves. They are too busy juggling responsibilities, paying the bills, studying, raising families — all while weathering gusts of dark emotions or delusions that would quickly overwhelm almost anyone else. Read more here

Learning to Cope With a Mind’s Taunting Voices
The New York Times
by Benedict Carey
August 6, 2011

LEE’S SUMMIT, Mo. — The job was gone, the gun was loaded, and a voice was saying, "You’re a waste, give up now, do it now."

It was a command, not a suggestion, and what mattered at that moment — a winter evening in 2000 — was not where the voice was coming from, but how assured it was, how persuasive.
Losing his first decent job ever seemed like too much for Joe Holt to live with. It was time.

"All I remember then is a knock on the bedroom door and my wife, Patsy, she sits down on the bed and hugs me, and I’m holding the gun in my left hand, down here, out of sight," said Mr. Holt, 50, a computer consultant and entrepreneur who has a diagnosis of schizophrenia.

"She says, ‘Joe, I know you feel like quitting, but what if tomorrow is the day you get what you want?’ And walks out. I sat there staring at that gun for an hour at least, and finally decided — never again. It can never be an option. Patsy deserves for me to be trying."

In recent years, researchers have begun talking about mental health care in the same way addiction specialists speak of recovery — the lifelong journey of self-treatment and discipline that guides substance abuse programs. The idea remains controversial: managing a severe mental illness is more complicated than simply avoiding certain behaviors. The journey has more mazes, fewer road signs.

Yet people like Joe Holt are traveling it and succeeding. Most rely on some medical help, but each has had to build core skills from the ground up, through trial and repeated error. Now more and more of them are risking exposure to tell their stories publicly. Read more here

A High-Profile Executive Job as Defense Against Mental Ills
The New York Times
by Benedict Carey
October 22, 2011

PASADENA, Calif. — The feeling of danger was so close and overwhelming that there was no time to find its source, no choice but to get out of the apartment, fast.

Keris Myrick headed for her car, checked the time — just past midnight, last March — and texted her therapist.

"You’re going to the Langham? The hotel?" the doctor responded. "No — you need to be in the hospital. I need you consulting with a doctor."

"What do you think I’m doing right now?"

"Oh. Right," he said. "Well, O.K., then we need to check in regularly."

"And that’s what we did," said Ms. Myrick, 50, the chief executive of a nonprofit organization, who has a diagnosis of schizoaffective disorder, a close cousin of schizophrenia, and obsessive-compulsive disorder. "I needed to hide out, to be away for a while. I wanted to pamper myself — room service, great food, fluffy pillows, all that — and I was lucky to have a therapist who understood what was going on and went with it."

Researchers have conducted more than 100,000 studies on schizophrenia since its symptoms were first characterized. They have tested patients’ blood. They have analyzed their genes. They have measured perceptual skills, I.Q. and memory, and have tried perhaps thousands of drug treatments.

Now, a group of people with the diagnosis is showing researchers a previously hidden dimension of the story: how the disorder can be managed while people build full, successful lives. The continuing study — a joint project of the University of California, Los Angeles; the University of Southern California; and the Department of Veterans Affairs — follows a group of 20 people with the diagnosis, including two doctors, a lawyer and a chief executive, Ms. Myrick. Read more here

Finding Purpose After Living With Delusion
The New York Times
by Benedict Carey
November 25, 2011

ATHENS, Ohio — She was gone for good, and no amount of meditation could resolve the grief, even out here in the deep quiet of the woods.

Milt Greek pushed to his feet. It was Mother’s Day 2006, not long after his mother’s funeral, and he headed back home knowing that he needed help. A change in the medication for his schizophrenia, for sure. A change in focus, too; time with his family, to forget himself

And, oh yes, he had to act on an urge expressed in his psychotic delusions: to save the world.

So after cleaning the yard around his house — a big job, a gift to his wife — in the coming days he sat down and wrote a letter to the editor of the local newspaper, supporting a noise-pollution ordinance.

Small things, maybe, but Mr. Greek has learned to live with his diagnosis in part by understanding and acting on its underlying messages, and along the way has built something exceptional: a full life, complete with a family and a career.

He is one of a small number of successful people with a severe psychiatric diagnosis who have chosen to tell their story publicly. In doing so, they are contributing to a deeper understanding of mental illness — and setting an example that can help others recover. Read more here

Law Practice Can Trigger Stress Disorder, Says Attorney Who Now Works as Therapist

ABA Journal Law News Now
by Martha Neil
March 17, 2010

A sense of impending doom is a common feeling for many attorneys in practice: From the mistake made when drafting a document or taking a deposition to a transgression that you may not even be aware of yet, there's always something lurking in your consciousness to produce a feeling of being "in trouble."

For him personally, writes Will Meyerhofer, a former BigLaw associate who now works as a psychotherapist, "it got to the point for me, at Sullivan & Cromwell, that I felt my entire body clench in preparation for attack just walking through the doors of 125 Broad Street and stepping into that elevator." His post, however, indicates that law practice, in general, rather than any particular law firm, is the cause of such stress.

Such feelings of constant anxiety, he says in a People's Therapist post, can rise to the level of a diagnosable case of post-traumatic stress disorder, which is characterized by a state of hyper-vigilance to potential attack, a deadening of emotions and flashbacks or nightmares concerning stressful situations.

Creating a "safe zone" within a difficult work environment, so that you can let your guard down and relax, can make a critical difference, Meyerhofer says. (He also advises finding another position if a job is too stressful.) Read more here

Will Meyerhofer, JD LMSW

The People's Therapist

Will Meyerhofer, JD LMSW is a psychotherapist in private practice in Lower Manhattan, in New York City. You can visit his private practice website at: www.aquietroom.com. He holds degrees from Harvard, NYU School of Law and The Hunter College School of Social Work. He likes to do things differently. This is your space, too, and psychotherapy is experiential. Let's relate and explore together. Read more here

Pennsylvania Disability Advocates Seek to Thwart Governor’s Budget Plan with Lawsuit
ABA Journal Law News Now
By Debra Cassens Weiss
March 16, 2012

Disability advocates have filed a lawsuit that claims Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett violated state law with a budget proposal.

The suit by the Disability Rights Network of Pennsylvania says Corbett has proposed combining funding for several public welfare programs into block grants that would be dispensed to counties. The proposal violates state law, the suit says, because funding must be specifically allocated to programs for mental illness and intellectual disabilities. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and the Patriot News have stories.

Kelli Roberts, a spokeswoman for the governor, says the lawsuit is premature. "The governor has put this on the table as a proposal, but everything is being negotiated and everything may change," Roberts told the Patriot News. "So at this point in time, a lawsuit is frivolous." Read more here

The Legal Clinic for the Disabled, Inc.

Phone: 215-587-3350

Since 1990, the Legal Clinic for the Disabled, a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation with offices at Magee Rehabilitation Hospital, has helped thousands of people. We help victims of domestic violence get legal protection from their abusers. We represent victims of identity theft and consumer fraud. We help parents and care givers access healthcare for their children. We write wills, powers of attorney and living wills. Most of our clients experience physical limitations in their daily activities, and many have suffered catastrophic injuries or illnesses like stroke, spinal cord or brain injury, multiple sclerosis, cancer, advanced diabetes, glaucoma, AIDS, amputation or epilepsy. Our services help them overcome legal problems and continue living comfortably and independently in the community.

Employee Fired Because of Depression Wins Right to Jury Trial

Ellen Simon is recognized as one of the first and foremost employment and civil rights lawyers in the United States. Today, Ellen offers legal advice to individuals with legal problems surrounding employment rights, age/gender/race or disability discrimination, workplace retaliation and sexual harassment. Ellen's a legal analyst and is available to discuss high-profile civil cases, employment discrimination and women's issues. Quoted often in local and national news media, Ellen is a regular guest on television and radio, including appearances on Court TV.

Read more here

Lawyer Produces Documentary Addressing Depression Among Lawyers
ABA Journal Law News Now
Posted November 24, 2010
by Stephanie Francis Ward

Daniel Lukasik, a Buffalo, N.Y., lawyer who also founded the website and companion blog Lawyers with Depression, recently produced a short documentary on the same subject, which he hopes will be shown at law schools around the country.

Titled A Terrible Melancholy: Depression in the Legal Profession, the film focuses on the stories of lawyers and judges. Included in the mix is Abraham Lincoln, who according to a Lawjobs.com article fought with depression his entire life.

"The film is meant to educate and inform people about what depression is and what it isn't, and also to destigmatize it in the legal profession," Lukasik told Lawjobs.com. "I think it's a huge stigma. Lawyers are supposed to be problem-solvers. We've not supposed to have problems."

To finance the film, Lukasik got money from the Erie County, N.Y., Bar Foundation, the New York Lawyer Assistance Trust and the Margaret L. Wendt Foundation. The Erie County Bar Foundation is making the film available to law schools and practitioners.

Every state has some form of confidential support program for lawyers struggling with substance abuse or emotional problems. Many state bars have affiliated programs while others run separate nonprofit groups staffed by volunteers. The programs vary, though most offer personal and career counseling, as well as referrals to other resources. Some offer individual and group therapy sessions. Some also serve law students and judges.

The ABA commission develops educational materials for lawyers about substance abuse, stress, depression and other mental health issues, and it works closely with lawyer assistance programs run by state and local bar associations. A directory of those programs, along with other training and educational materials, publications, products and related resources, is avail­able on the commission’s website at abanet.org/legalservices/colap.

The commission also maintains a referral hotline for lawyers in crisis at 1-866-LAW-LAPS. Read more here

Lawyers with Depression website

Depression is often a very isolating experience—even when the depressed person has a supportive and loving group of people to rely on.

In my own life, I often found relief in reading books about depression, spirituality or health and trying to relate the wisdom in those books to my own life as a lawyer.

When I searched on-line for materials to read that would support me in my attempt to cope with depression and my law practice, what I found was sometimes helpful, but in the end, not sufficient. Read more here

The 10 Best-Ever Depression Management Techniques: Understanding How Your Brain Makes You Depressed and What You Can Do to Change It on Amazon.com

People suffering from clinical depression and who feel that they are to blame for their debility may take comfort in psychologist Wehrenberg’s deconstruction of the depressed brain. In language that is unavoidably technically complicated on occasion, she explains how the intricate workings of the physical brain affect the emotions, not only causing and sustaining depression, but reinforcing it as well. She also describes how the different types of prescription medications work on the brain’s chemical processes to help alleviate depression’s symptoms. As a practicing psychologist, Wehrenberg additionally promotes the added benefit of talk therapy. But recognizing that not everyone has means to access a licensed therapist, she offers some of her own tried-and-true methods for self-help. Appendixes include additional reading plus a number of charts, questionnaires, and graphs to guide readers in their recovery efforts. In steps that are both clear and scaled for easily attainable victories, Wehrenberg extends a hand to those without the recourse of clinical therapy. --Donna Chavez

Lawyers with Depression, ABA Journal Law News Now story
ABA Journal Law News Now

"Reflections and commentaries about the impact of depression on the legal profession. Depression is a widespread problem for lawyers. Studies indicate that they suffer from depression at a rate twice that of the average American. Accordingly, approximately 200,000 of the nation's 1 million lawyers struggle with depression. The blog looks at depression from many different angles."

Author: Dan Lukasik practices at Cantor Lukasik Dolce Panepinto in Buffalo, N.Y. He is the creator of LawyerswithDepression.com

ABA Journal Law News Now
by Martha Neil
November 29, 2010

Now serving six months after making headlines in her South Dakota community for allegedly leading police on a high-speed, booze-fueled chase and taking at least $20,000 from a client trust account, a former Sioux Falls lawyer says she is seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.

After admitting her criminal conduct and facing up to her addiction and depression issues, Mary Ann Giebink says she is feeling much better about her life and seeing a positive side to her time in jail in Minnehaha County, according to the Argus Leader.

"I was dying inside. This is like freedom," she told the newspaper earlier this month. "There's no secrecy anymore. How freeing is that? Everybody knows me for who I am now."

Among other plus factors to being incarcerated, Giebink, who is in her early 50s, cites not having to cook, a free pair of shoes and the opportunity "to see the system from the other side."

Read more here

Mayanne Downs

A Way Out for Lawyers in Despair

Florida Bar Journal, Dec. 2010
by Mayanne Downs, President, TFB

Michael J. Cohen is executive director of Florida Lawyers Assistance, Inc., a program created by the Florida Supreme Court to help attorneys impaired because of drugs, alcohol, or psychological concerns.