Human services and law: Integrally connected

We look to courts a lot these days. It seems that not a single day goes by when courts are not featured on the national newscast. By habit—and, one hopes, still with awe—we cling to courts as a last refuge for justice. Perhaps we grasp too tightly. Courts cannot solve our problems for us. Most often, they mediate interpretations of our own indecisiveness. This is especially true regarding human services. We turn to courts to deal with one social problem after another: abortion, child and elder abuse, involuntary electroshock treatment, stalking, battered women, repressed memory, parental kidnapping. And the list goes on.

The language lawyers use is a major obstacle, keeping human services workers and lawyers from understanding one another. This column attempts to bridge the language gap. Though language may define our experiences for purposes of general thought and communication, law codifies our experiences for legal purposes. It assumes a complex set of relationships to which individuals must adjust. The nuances of law are explained and illuminated by each unique lawsuit. But the core meaning of law is derived from a previous consensus based upon generalizing, abstracting, and categorizing. Sadly, by dividing society into discrete statutes and court opinions, there is a loss of continuity. The stitching of legislative codes is not as seamless as a legislator ever imagines.

Traditionally, law and human services do not have a common communications meeting ground. One leans toward arcane written exactitude, the other to speech that is emotional and intuitive.  Law distinguishes only between legal and illegal, rather than between acceptable and unacceptable, or better and best. It consciously does not make distinctions except where society wants a legal separation. The subject matter common to both—social justice—is forcing them to work together on behalf of the same clients. To do this effectively, the professionals of each discipline must quickly learn to understand the language of the other.

Perhaps we don’t realize how much law affects human services and human services workers. As human services becomes ever more complex, law is inevitably implicated. The importance of human services workers being acquainted with legal concepts cannot be understated. The more you understand how critical legal reasoning works, the better equipped you will be to distinguish between policy and practice considerations, and the less often lawyers will make decisions for you that you could readily make yourself.

Prior to being able to communicate effectively with lawyers and legislators, it is necessary to have some knowledge and appreciation of how the legal system works. This column hopes to introduce you to the fascinating world of critical legal thinking and how that thinking has recently been applied to real-life human services situations.

Perhaps we think of law as very orderly and human services as not so orderly. The merits of this hypothesis will not be debated here. What does seem to be clear is that law is bringing an orderliness of language to certain areas of human services, welcome or not. At a time when human services is being greatly influenced by law and the lines between them may be blurring, the imprint of a more rigorous language may be beneficial for human service professionals, and the knowledge that certain legal categories exist on paper but not in reality may help lawyers realize that achieving social order and social justice is not so easily done.

Our disciplines are not as insular as they once were. Pride of profession may lead to a perception of the client as fitting into either law or human services. This is a mistake. If the disciplines are perceived as too discrete from each other, the gap between them is apt to be exaggerated for the sake of self-definition, and distrust and suspicion will only grow.

is likely seen by human services workers as a set of elaborate statutes, saturated with directives pertaining to the minutest aspects of life—all written in a foreign language. In fact, law is a process, just like human services. There is a blending and an overlap between law and human services that should be celebrated, not disdained. For the sake of our mutual clients, we need to work flexibly with each other. Far from losing the unique identity of each profession, it is likely that each will grow richer, and a deeper appreciation of ourselves and our clients will follow.

The above essay is excerpted from Social Work and the Courts (Brunner-Routledge, 2003)