Refusing to deal with highly sensitive case in work

LegacyUser

I work in a solicitor's office and my employer recently took instructions from a man who is accused of molesting a family member. The intention is that my employer will represent him in this action.

I am entirely uncomfortable doing any work on this file and I have no intention of doing any work on this file due to the nature of the accusations. The subject matter is obviously very sensitive and the instructions from the client contain (obviously) some quite graphic detail of the accusations.

Due to events that happened during my own childhood I find the subject matter very distressing and it is not something that I wish to work on as I do not wish to re-live what I went through in any way, shape or form.

Does anybody have any advice on how I could approach my employer in relation to this matter? I want to tell her that I do not want to work on the file but I don't want to have to give my reasons as I would prefer not to disclose such personal information to my employer.

Thanks in advance.

Victor

I appreciate you face a difficult time. You don't say whether you are a solicitor or other staff.

1. just because there a re charges doesn't necessarily mean the accused is guilty.

2. Distasteful work is likely to happen again. How often will you have to excuse yourself?

3. Does your contract say anything about such matters?

4. It might be useful to talk to one of the organisations dealing with abuse - both to bounce the matter off someone and for practical advice.

5. You don't necessarily have to say the abuse happened to you - merely that it happened someone close to you and that you feel that it is too close for you to be objective in the matter.

LegacyUser

Victor wrote: »

I appreciate you face a difficult time. You don't say whether you are a solicitor or other staff.

1. just because there a re charges doesn't necessarily mean the accused is guilty.

2. Distasteful work is likely to happen again. How often will you have to excuse yourself?

3. Does your contract say anything about such matters?

4. It might be useful to talk to one of the organisations dealing with abuse - both to bounce the matter off someone and for practical advice.

5. You don't necessarily have to say the abuse happened to you - merely that it happened someone close to you and that you feel that it is too close for you to be objective in the matter.

Thank you for your reply. I am a P.A. to the principal litigation fee earner. This means that I would do a good portion of the typing, i.e. typing the instructions given by the client.

1. Unfortunately the accusations are true and our client has admitted to some of what happened but is disputing some things.

2. The only reason my employer took this case is because the man is a client of the office in another capacity so fortunately, we have never and hopefully will never have to deal with a matter like this again. As I said I work for a litigation solicitor and we deal with RTAs, medical negligence etc.
Also, I do not refuse to work on all distasteful work, just this kind in particular for obvious reasons that I have stated already.

3. My contract mentions nothing about this as my employer probably never envisioned dealing with a matter like this. As I said we have never handled a case like this before and probably never will again. The matter was taken on purely because the man is a client of the office in another capacity.

4. and 5. Thank you.

Procrastastudy

All you can do is approach your employer. Perhaps a temp could be got in and you could negotiate bearing some of the cost. Alternatively I'd suggest contacting the local colleges to see if they have a law student who could come in on an temporary intership basis. Some institutions have projects going on that students work on who would have some experience of working in this area.

Mrs OBumble

Your employer has Health and Safety obligations to provide you with a safe workplace - this includes emotional safety.

That said, how this plays out depends totally on your relationship with your employer and how sympathetic they are to the situation.

In a big organisation, I'd suggest looking for something like an Employee Assistance Programme.

In a smaller company you probably need to contact and pay for a counsellor yourself: be very clear about your goals: right now, you need them to help you work out the employment situation.

Worst case, go to your GP and get signed off with "stress" for a while. (I don't think this is a good option, btw, but it's always there as a bottom line.)

StillWaters

I think from a purely professional viewpoint you have to tell your boss you have a clear conflict of interest in this case.