Trauma Informed Lawyering, Part 3, with Lawyer Sonia Nijjar

Inside Medical Malpractice

This month, on Inside Medical Malpractice, part three of a 4-part series on Trauma Informed Lawyering. Listen in as lawyer Sonia Nijjar, associate lawyer and director of business development and knowledge management at Neinstein Personal Injury Law Firm in Toronto tells us how dealing with medical malpractice clients at a very difficult time in their lives affect her. Knowing how very wrong things can go in healthcare led to a hypervigilance during her own pregnancy and opened her eyes to significant challenges her clients experience when interacting with the healthcare system. There’s insight on how healthcare access is affected by diversity, equality and inclusion highlighting the need for cultural competence in the presence of power and privilege. Sonia shares how learning about trauma informed lawyering broadened her perspective and changed her practice, now giving credence to the experiences and trauma experienced by her clients. Sonia also shares some of the greatest insights of the trauma informed workshop, one of them being that every lawyer, at times, has felt ill equipped to deal with trauma. Additional insights? Learning to meet clients ‘where they’re at’ and offering a safe place to tell their story. My favorite quote; “We’ve got to name what we’re looking at. We’re looking at trauma.” This is another great episode in a fabulous series. Listen to it, talk about it, and share it!