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Client Interviews and Relationships

Client Interviews and Relationships. First Meeting Through Social History Intake. Client Relationship Essential. Trust is necessary to all aspects of your case, *Developing Mitigation, *Getting a Plea, *Investigating Culpability

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Client Interviews and Relationships

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  1. Client Interviews and Relationships First Meeting Through Social History Intake Gulf Region Advocacy Center

  2. Client Relationship Essential Trust is necessary to all aspects of your case, *Developing Mitigation, *Getting a Plea, *Investigating Culpability A majority of those currently on death row turned down plea bargains. Gulf Region Advocacy Center

  3. Client Relationship Takes Work Team Should Discuss *Frequency and Purpose of Visits *Who Visits *Making Sure Visit Memos are Circulated to Whole Team *Meeting Clients Needs (NOT Manipulations) Gulf Region Advocacy Center

  4. First contact • Don’t come with a rigid agenda, but have these goals in mind: • Get a good supply of all kinds of releases signed, • Explain confidentiality, • Bring the snitch form if you are the first person on the team to visit the client, • Emphasize concerns about contact with state actors, • Get a sense of who they are calling from the jail, • Explain legal mail v. regular mail and legal calls v. regular calls • Bring supplies for autobiography to give if it seems appropriate (not always) • But, most of all: LISTEN!!!!! Gulf Region Advocacy Center

  5. First contact, cont’d. • Ask about his/her well-being and health • Were they taking any meds on the outside that need to be provided? • Are they able to sleep and eat? If not, why? Is there something you can do? • How are they being treated? • Would they like to see a spiritual advisor? • Observe client’s physical appearance, demeanor, ability to track conversation, speech, etc., and report to team. • But, most of all: LISTEN!!!!! Gulf Region Advocacy Center

  6. Begin to develop a trusting relationship • Monitoring mental health issues, hygiene, disciplinary problems, conditions at the jail, treatment by guards • Providing support - If you can’t get me a blanket when I’m cold, how can you save my life? • Keep them informed on the progress of their case • But, most of all: LISTEN!!!!! Gulf Region Advocacy Center

  7. Start Institutional Outline • Birth hospital • Schools • Medical • Workplaces • Military • Prisons/jails/juvenile • Rehab/psych history • Churches/Temples/Mosques • But, most of all: LISTEN!!!!! Gulf Region Advocacy Center

  8. Continuing contact • Get easy information, such as bare outline of institutional history (schools, hospitals, employers, etc.) in first or second visit, but don’t push for depth and breadth too soon, • Do family tree skeleton in second or third visit, but don’t push to fill it out all at once, • Move at a pace the client can handle and don’t take up all the time with your own agenda • And, most of all: LISTEN!!!!! Gulf Region Advocacy Center

  9. Client Intake Outline • Institutional list • Family tree – basic names and places • Chronology – where client lived and with whom • Fill in Family tree with details about each person • Use address-based chronology as guide to work through themes over series of visits, working from easier to more difficult: medical history, family medical history, work history, criminal history, sexual history, drug history, etc. • Looping interview techniques • Do “day in the life” for each new family “era” (i.e. combination of people and place) Gulf Region Advocacy Center

  10. Filling in the Family Tree • Initially get basic data with closed questions, but then move into open-ended questions, such as asking for descriptions of each person on the tree and stories about them, what kind of person are they; • Let the client wander down tangents and skip around without interruption, but keep track of what they skip and go back to it Gulf Region Advocacy Center

  11. What NOT to Say • I’m just curious… • I promise… • I’m glad there’s a guard outside. • Why doesn’t your family come visit you? • Why did you spend all that money on drugs/gold/cars instead of paying your child support? • Yeah, I know your lawyer is annoying/crazy/weird. I don’t get along with her very well either. Let’s share stories. • God will forgive you if you confess your sins. Let us pray. • I’ll keep in touch. • I believe you. • I totally understand what you’re going through. • What’s the first thing you want to do when you get out? • I’ll be on your case as long as it takes. Gulf Region Advocacy Center

  12. Routine Struggles • Why do we have to talk about the penalty phase? • Team Splitting • Timing of Plea Discussions • Coherency of Themes • Look for aggravators – strategies on attacking/neutralizing Gulf Region Advocacy Center

  13. Continuing to develop your relationship • Pay attention to what your client is saying. • Try to let your client do most the talking. • Make sure to follow through with reasonable requests made by your client. • NEVER make promises you cannot keep. Gulf Region Advocacy Center

  14. Plea preparation • When to begin • How to talk about it • Persuasion is not necessarily a direct sales pitch • Client’s stated concerns are often not really what’s going on Gulf Region Advocacy Center

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