Lawyer’s perception of embitterment in legal disputes

ABSTRACT

Participants in legal disputes can harbor feelings of injustice, betrayal, humiliation. An often associated emotion is embitterment, which is characterized by an urge to reinstall justice and to fight back, whatever the cost. Embitterment-related dysfunctional behavior can complicate legal procedures. Fifty-one lawyers were asked to think about their last regular client and a client which they consider to suffer from embitterment. In the group of regular clients, 20.7% were judged to show signs of embitterment. Increased scores of 2.5 or higher on a list of embitterment symptoms was found in 18.2% of the regular and 56.2% of the embittered clients. The average duration of the legal dispute was significantly longer in embittered clients and more lawyers were involved. No associations were found with socio-demographic characteristics or type of the legal problem. The data show that embitterment is known to lawyers and seen in many clients. Attorneys, law scholars, courts, lawmakers, and clinicians should be aware of embitterment. Open questions are how one should deal with embitterment in legal discourses and court decisions and how one can avoid that embitterment causes unsuccessful legal disputes.

KEYWORDS:

• Embitterment
• revenge
• injustice
• lawyers
• dysfunctional behavior
• mental health

Acknowledgments

We want to thank the lawyers who cooperated in the survey and answered the questionnaires without any reimbursement.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.