Karin Pearson-Huffer is the author of Legal Abuse Syndrome, which identifies a form of post traumatic stress disorder caused by corruption in our courts, along with protracted litigation.  This book is a must-read for victims of legal abuse as it contains clear cut identification of the problem, and assists us to cope successfully with our situations.

Legal Abuse Syndrome is a 234 page book which discusses the effects of, and steps to recovery from Legal Abuse Syndrome (LAS), what the author has defined as a Post Traumatic Stress Disorder resulting from abusive and protracted litigation.

Anyone subjected to the abuses of the American civil justice system will immediately identify with the cover and quotations appearing on the back cover of the book.

Ms. Huffer begins in the Preface by defining LAS, and in the Introduction identifies seven LAS victims whose stories she has woven into a highly readable self-help book for other victims of LAS.  Legal Abuse Syndrome also doubles as a text book for mental health professionals providing therapy to LAS victims.

The book is divided into 10 chapters, beginning in Chapters 1 and 2, Huffer identifies the symptoms of the LAS victim and the etiology of LAS.  These two introductory chapters are followed by 8 chapters in which the author breaks down the Eight Steps to Recovery consisting of Debriefing, Grieving, Obsession, Blaming, Deshaming, Reframing, Empowerment and Recovery.

Each chapter begins with a relevant quote which sets the stage for the material presented.  The book concludes with Maya Angelou's powerful poem, "I rise."

INTRODUCTION

Legal Abuse Syndrome is a book which helps victims overcome the pain caused by their psychological reaction to profound and prolonged injustice.  Those who seek justice have been victimized by either deception or violence.  When a victim pursues justice he becomes engaged in a "shotgun wedding" of sorts which unites the psychological and legal issues into a psycholegal condition.  Recovery requires both psychological attention and legal closure.  The condition, which i have named "Legal Abuse Syndrome (LAS)", is a chronic "psycholegal" Post Traumatic Stress Disorder which complicates the victim's ability to adequately defend himself or herself against further assaults or to effectively fight for rights at a moment when victims most need their creative powers.  LAS is the obscure factor that is exploited by unscrupulous attorneys, white-collar criminals, and abusers of authority.

We will meet victims who suffer from LAS.  Each story vividly portrays the struggle for freedom against systems that fail their proprietors, the taxpayers.  The stories are of real people put to the test of character; bravery takes on a quiet dimension.  I resist the term common people because it alludes to sameness.  These are unique and talented individuals whose common thread lies only in their traumas.  Ordinary is a more appropriate adjective in that they are unknown, private performers and reflective of the majority of Americans.

James was an ordinary man with a dream.  He put hard work behind the dream and brought it to near completion.  A big bank and a contractor conspired and together used the bankruptcy system to take the product of twenty years of James' life.

Judy was a trusting mother and real estate salesperson.  She met a man and married him.  She found that the identity of the man she married was falsified.  He had been three separate people in his life.  Three complete sets of false identities had seen this man through feigned lives across the nation.

John was ready for retirement.  A trusted employee and an attorney conspired to take his company.  John is fighting for his financial life at an age that was planned for comfortable retirement.  His wife worries that the stress and trauma will kill him.

Tom suffered financial collapse as a result of improper actions of a judge who would not enforce a jury's decision.  Tom took on his own legal battle.  He's fought for nearly a decade in court.  His appreciation of the Constitutional plan for American justice has grown along with his determination to protect it.

Chloe was rejected, divorced, and assumed to be a woman who could not put up a fight in court to protect her share of the estate.  Chloe set a new standard for perseverance and creativity in her court battles.  Her prominent husband, with his power-oriented ways, is left in shock as Chloe begins to turn her case around.  The reader will be shocked as well.

Manny followed family tradition and stood up for himself against the odds.  Manny allowed his emotions to dominate his case.

Each of these victims suffers from LAS.  They would not have developed the condition if the institutions that are paid to regulate and protect the citizens had functioned ethically and competently.  Massive systems failure greeted each of them. Their experiences and others will guide us from their points of victimization through the eight steps toward recovery.

Psycholegal LAS victims have exceeded rage in the human emotional experience.  This book is the helping manual for these walking wounded who suffer from the cumulative effects of a criminal or deceptive assault followed by further trauma from experiences with the justice system, professionals, and/or bureaucracies.  Legal Abuse Syndrome exposes a completely preventable condition.  LAS takes the victim "Beyond Rage".  This book brings the victim back from the implosive, devastating cycle of LAS.  Eight steps provide the road map and survival course that guides the victim from the points of impact of the assaults through the brutalities of the systems too often encountered during the aftermath of crime. 

Chapter Summaries

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 graphic-ally 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.

Chapter 3 - "Debriefing" begins the second part of the book, the eight steps to recovery.  Debriefing is an activity that the reader can do.  It centers around a graphic, processing sheet that delineates losses, feelings and facts.  This chapter begins a caring journey.  The sense of isolation is relieved in victims as they see their experience(s) begin to take a manageable form.  The case of P.J., who broke through denial during debriefing helps us understand how to effectively respond to victims.  This chapter also lists "absolutely what NOT to say to a victim."  The chapter includes one illustration and two reader participation graphics.

Chapter 4 - "Grieving" clarifies that loss of trust is the greatest loss known to a human being.  The case of Judy demonstrates the profound effect of bureaucratic and law enforcement behavior on a victim.  Judy had to face the FBI, the IRS, and court after a betrayal by her husband.  Grieving masks as depression (the common cold of mental illness), exhaustion, varied illnesses and conditions.  Grieving over loss of property is usually discounted in American culture.  "Takings" have become a part of business strategy and are often done through the use of the system.  Bankruptcy court, the Drug Enforcement Agency, the IRS - effect takings of property without due process.  Takings threaten the lifeblood of the nation.  The case of John depicts the nebulous nature of grief.  It is pushed aside if the loss is not "respectably" large.  John breaks down over a tiny tangible issue that, in fact, reflects huge intangible losses.  In this chapter we see that the loss of belief systems, trust, and ideals are critical to the loss picture.  Each case will show that our protective systems did not function as intended, and inadvertently or by design, intensified the trauma.  Legal Abuse Syndrome, a Journey Beyond Rage... and Back, articulates that the right to redress in order to prevent losses and to exact recompense is key to a sense of safety and security necessary for mental health.

Chapter 5 - "Obsession" leads us toward a sense of control over our lives again.  Readers become aware that obsession is a natural response to victimization.  Randomization is a difficult concept to grasp in life.  When good people are assaulted and left unaffirmed by their culture's systems, life proceeds on a path with no moral compass - no guide to safety.  A list of obsessive styles is characterized by descriptive names, i.e., "Lifeguard", obsesses around health; where as an "Inventorier" counts and accounts for all belongings, endlessly.  What to do about easing obsession is listed with case examples.  A sense of humor interweaves as victims look at their obsessive selves with acceptance.

Chapter 6 - "Blaming" faces victim-blaming head on.  Society discourages blaming; therefore, victims are praised for taking responsibility for the awful things that happen to them.  Further, victims often seen little recourse once blame is established.  Attribution is a necessary step toward justice because it reinforces the moral code.  This chapter gives a victim a  graphic for assessing degrees of blame and then enriches the reader with specific blaming actions dramatized by James and the other cases.  Barriers to blaming are explored, such as guilt and societal pressure.  There is a self-blame checklist followed by the danger of self blame.  Revenge and punishment are contrasted with appropriate, quality blaming actions which drive behavior toward the moral code.  Those ignored, outrageous assaults by attorneys and the systems, such as slander and character assassination in the courtroom and denied right to redress, are listed at the end of the chapter. Victims begin to feel that they are not crazy or at fault.  This chapter includes a reader participation check list.

Chapter 7 - "Deshaming" - offers a totally unique approach to understanding human motivation in terms of power.  A continuum is presented which ranks a person's motivating force as either conscience-based or power-based.  Human interactions can be visualized as on a grid.  The conscience-based person is often victimized even though he may have spiritual power.  Power-based people are motivated by envy and a need for superior posture.  Lying is a key tool of the power motivated person.  Lying wins over truth.  Here is where violation of the moral code is "business as usual" for some and an outrage to others.  Shame is known to the conscience-based person, who often absorbs shame from the violator as well.  A tournament of the game, "Prisoner's Dilemma", is used as an example of strategies that help conscience-based people learn to identify and cope with power-based individuals.  Specific skills are taught regarding cooperation, competition, and self-protection.  Thus, to free them from shame, the readers are able to relinquish undeserved shame and to follow guiding principles for modification of their belief systems.  The case of Manny exemplifies the predicament and the process for deshaming.  The chapter includes two illustrations.

Chapter 8 - "Reframing" is the pivotal procedure that embarks upon recovery.  All five steps leading to reframing are required to effectively achieve this phase.  The victim shifts from a painful perception of self to a new, open, morally sound and personally inspired view of himself.  There is an LAS Reframe Exercise which allows the painful issue to come forth.  Then the pain is put to the reframe steps.  The victim might say, "I was a fool".  Reframed, the victim will say, "I was a trustworthy person", "I believed that others were largely trustworthy too".  Then the victim searches for the wisdom gained from the experience.  The chapter includes one reader participation checklist.

Chapter 9 - "Empowerment" more than anything, brings a fresh approach for legal and bureaucratic problem solving to the ordinary person.  Steps are blueprints:  1) seek and destroy misinformation, 2) form pragmatic expectations, 3) avoid the predictable, 4) persevere, 5) use mental toughness, 6) become a vigilante consumer, 7) call a crime a crime.  Misinformation is a strategic tool used by abusers of the justice systems.  It crushes the force of truth distorting the course towards justice.  Oppression thrives on misinformation.  Empowerment requires effective attacks on misinformation through official channels.  The predictable path is owned by the power-centered.  They travel ahead and prepare to take the conscience-centered person out at every turn.  Victims need each other and creative approaches.  This chapter ties into Appendix B which contains a host of resources.  Eleven tools and techniques are presented.  Rules and regulations of an institution are usually broken by those who abuse from within the organization.  Finding those violations empowers a victim tremendously.  Mental toughness is the ability to never lose focus regardless of attacks or diversions.  Vigilante consumers focus on the real bottom line in America, the consumer.  When crimes occur, they must be treated as crimes and dealt with by consumers who keep the focus on the real bottom line.  The chapter contains one graphic.

Chapter 10 - "Recovery" brings perspective.  Victims become veterans who have an important function in correcting societal wrongs.  Readers are brought up to date by parting words from the victims whose cases were portrayed in the book.  It becomes apparent that recovery is not a destination but a journey wherein the eight steps are incorporated into a renewed lifestyle.  Forgiveness and restoration are discussed as quite separate issues from recovery.  Veterans are no longer cellophane-wrapped hostages but are back in the game of life, risking once more.  Trust as a staple, societal issue is explored in the context of LAS being a totally preventable assault to the mental health of our nation.

In the Conclusion, Ms. Huffer thanks her patients who have trusted her and taught her that there is an invisible fabric woven of American character found in the ordinary person.  It is an invitation for these victims who refused to be soul-murdered to lead the nation back into a future of hope, trust and a code of American conduct that they represent so quietly.  The Epilogue contains a snapshot of an LAS victim that has been driven beyond rage.

The book includes a Bibliography which cites references and related works is included as well as a Glossary of terms used in the book.

Appendix A defines clinical post traumatic stress disorder.

Appendix B Resources for the Empowerment of the Ordinary Person.  This appendix provides the LAS victim with a list of organizations dedicated to legal reform and victim rights.

Appendix C Victims-Witness Protection Act of 1984.

Appendix D contains worksheets to be used in conjunction with the book.

The following pages contain the Preface and Introduction as they appear in the actual book.

PREFACE

* If you are deeply disillusioned and feeling oppressed as an American citizen, resulting from experience with our justice system, you may be suffering from Legal Abuse Syndrome.

* If you've been a litigant in court and justice was not to be obtained at any price, you may be suffering from Legal Abuse Syndrome.

* If you fantasize an act of vigilante vengeance because it seems like the only recourse, you may be suffering from Legal Abuse Syndrome.

* If you've reported a crime and found that you were punished instead of the criminal, you may be suffering from Legal Abuse Syndrome.

* If creativity and dreams have been left in the past because their development was ripped from you and torn to shreds by your protective systems, you may be suffering from Legal Abuse Syndrome.

* If you feel numb, disconnected, and vulnerable, you may be suffering from Legal Abuse Syndrome.

* If you feel that the "system" will defeat you at every turn and there is nothing you can do about it, you may be suffering from Legal Abuse Syndrome.

* If you feel that you have been victimized twice, once by a perpetrator and then by your protective system, you may be suffering from Legal Abuse Syndrome.

* If you feel that you are a decent and honorable taxpayer who's been subjected to "cruel and unusual punishment" by lawyers, judges, and officers of the court, you may be suffering from Legal Abuse Syndrome.

Some will deny that Legal Abuse Syndrome (LAS) exists.  They will remind us that we have an adversarial system of justice.  Abuses will be written off as adversaries battling for their clients.  Victims will be nothing more than casualties of a "fight for justice".  Others will worry that victims of LAS will want compensation for their psychological injuries.  Skeptics will ask, "Aren't LAS victims just malingerers wanting more from the system?"

I do not indict the legal profession, fine judges and hard working public servants.  I applaud those who serve their clients well in any milieu.  We do not bash any organization or profession in this book.  Lawyers, judges, FBI agents, police officers and investigators have all crossed my private practice and helped me to delineate the abuse of power that permeates every profession.  Many of these professionals are themselves invisible victims also and need the support of the public.

Abusers are studied in this book as a method of exposing to LAS victims the predicament that oppresses them.  The systems are explored in the victims' experiences.  The psycholegal condition is revealed along with skills to help the victim cope with abusers of his systems.  The scope is a large one for a marriage and family therapist or fellow victim to tackle.  It may feel unwieldy and threatening to the reader.  However, reading and rereading has produced results and has motivated me to risk a big project and perhaps an unpopular one in behalf of those invisible victims who can heal in spite of systems without a cure.

A firm warning to those who would use the following material to damage or discredit any citizen in any manner:

LEGAL ABUSE SYNDROME IS A NATURAL AND NORMAL RESPONSE TO AN ABNORMAL, UNNATURAL, CUMULATIVE TRAUMA, AS WITH ALL POST TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDERS.  ANY ATTEMPT BY ANY PERSON TO DISCREDIT AN INDIVIDUAL'S TESTIMONY, CHARACTER, OR ACTIONS DUE TO THEIR SUFFERING FROM LAS IS TO CLEARLY DEMONSTRATE THE ABERRANT NATURE OF OUR SYSTEM OF PROBLEM-SOLVING.  ANY ALLY OF CIVILIZATION MUST CLEARLY IDENTIFY SUCH BEHAVIOR AS ABUSIVE, PUT A HALT TO DESTRUCTIVE ACTIONS, AND DEVOTE THEIR ENERGIES TO RESTORATION OF VICTIMS OF THE "SYSTEMS".

No one likes to think of himself as a victim.  Immediately, it conjures an image of a loser or someone making poor life-choices.  Yet, in spite of resistance to facing our victimization, legal abuses have become common.  When abuses occur, victims are created.  We either have to face that we are victimized or accept an aberration to civilized living as being "just the way it is".

Laws provide for courts, agencies, law enforcement bureaucracies, and regulatory services.  We depend on them to resolve our disputes and to protect our cherished rights.  When they fail, our nation must deal with the victims and vigilantes left in the wake and officially sanctioned wrongdoing.

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 codependence, 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.

A therapist must, of course, check such observations against the danger of inaccurately projecting onto a client personal feelings or attitudes that go beyond 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 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

WORKING TOGETHER TO ATTAIN FAIRNESS