Legal Abuse Syndrome (LAS)

Throughout decades in her own counseling practice, psychologist Karin Huffer identified a  specific cumulative trauma in many of her clients, for which she coined the term "Legal Abuse Syndrome." In LAS, victims of sexual and/or domestic abuse are often dragged through the court system year after year. She observed how repetitious filings of frivolous motions and appeals were being used as a tactic to wear them down mentally, emotionally, and financially. “Legalized injustice,” she wrote. “LAS is the obscure factor that is exploited by unscrupulous attorneys, white-collar criminals, and abusers of authority.”

Dr. Huffer called LAS a “residual psychic trauma” not understood by family and friends, and seldom diagnosed by mental health professionals. She described how survivors involved in legal proceedings can feel violated by “the system:” Betrayed, frustrated and left fuming over the injustice being perpetrated upon them. Experiencing nightmares, exhaustion, and a sense of paranoia. And all of them demonstrate a striking lack of trust in everyone and everything.

She candidly admitted that the thesis of her book is still “theoretical,” and yet it's “deadly serious” in that “victims 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.’”

Legal Abuse Syndrome is not a mental illness, but rather a collection of symptoms that first has to be recognized and named before it can be worked through. Dr. Karin Huffer died in 2108, but her legacy of compassion towards victims of LAS is being carried on through her books, including Legal Abuse Syndrome, and her website Equal Access Advocates.