This post is about my participation on a panel, including discussing treatment conditions of bail, during the Annual Criminal Law Conference for duty counsel with LAO held on November 11, 2021.

I was asked by LAO to also address trauma informed lawyering in the context of providing legal services to clients with serious mental health issues. I had to really think hard about whether I was qualified to teach on this topic. Turns out I am.

Here is the bio I submitted for this event:

Anita Szigeti is a Toronto lawyer.

Anita was called to the Bar in Ontario almost 30 years ago, while suffering from major depression as a result of a life-altering trauma. She’s lived with PTSD ever since, while also building a sole practice into a seven person firm, which specializes in mental health at the intersection of civil and criminal justice. She has founded and Chaired several volunteer lawyer organizations, sits on some Boards of other organizations, teaches and publishes on mental health and the law. She mentors and champions young women colleagues and NCA graduates. Anita also advocates for Inuit NCR clients. She prefers to think of herself as a new call, just seven years at the Bar in Nunavut. Last but not least, Anita has been unmarried to the same man for 25 years. They are the proudest parents of two teenagers and one adopted geriatric gecko, Bananas.

For those interested in the text of the document I created specifically for this conference, it is an outline of what trauma is, common responses to trauma, what triggers a trauma response and how to avoid this.

You can find the document here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OAkA95Pvmhsk7jGIO0gXFbpEVfZcJdDa/view?usp=sharing

I forgot to include immigration or refugee experiences as a major life trauma. I will add it when this paper is written into a publishable format.

I’ve updated the document (January 2022) to include a few more things, including the pandemic…

Find the updated version here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/12BGazwJbQvrwpeQEMu-uVGGVtqDl9P70/view?usp=sharing

As I wrote the outline, I realized I have personally suffered most of the significant traumas I set out as examples of things that have life-long consequences. Indeed, about six of them happened in a six month period in 1991. That period led to the PTSD.

I understand very deeply what is at the root of so many serious mental health issues among our bar.

I am here to help during this incredibly difficult time for so many of us during the pandemic.

Also here to help is the volunteer lawyer association I founded in 2017, the Law and Mental Disorder Association (LAMDA).

Reach out to join by sending an email to lamda.exec@gmail.com if you practise mental health law.