Serbia Handbook for Legal Aid Providers Final

- A client asks you to investigate a case involving a business that your relative
partially owns.
- Using your position as a legal aid provider to solicit IDPs seeking assistance.
Often clients give you gifts or offer to provide you with gifts or favours as a way of thanking
you for your assistance, however sometimes these are intended to influence your work.
Even if this is not the reason for the gift or favour, your acceptance of a significant gift can
have the appearance of an attempt to influence and, like conflicts of interest, undermine the
credibility of your actions. Acceptance of significant gifts is therefore not appropriate.
Examples of gifts or favours:
Conduct
- Money
- Discounts
- Sexual favours
- Offer to help one of your family members to get a job
All staff shall act at all times in a manner that promotes public confidence in the dignity,
integrity, effectiveness and impartiality of the legal aid project. All staff shall observe high
standards of professional and personal conduct, respect and comply with the law, perform
his/her duties impartially and diligently and avoid any conduct and situation that could lead
to their integrity and impartiality being questioned.
Everyone working in legal aid has a duty of care when dealing with clients. This means that
we are obligated to help them to the best of our ability within our mandate.
If you don’t know the answer to a question by a client, do not make something up. Do not
simply turn the client away. Say that you will either find out the answer or find someone else
to refer the person to. Tell the client to come back if the referral that we made turns out not
to be helpful.
Dealing with difficult clients is not easy, but it is important to keep in mind their difficult
circumstances. Clients approach you for help because they have a problem. This usually
means that they are under a lot of stress and have encountered conflict situations with other
people and organizations. As a result, clients can sometimes be aggressive, emotional or
even distressful.
� Listen to the problem allowing the person to tell their story fully. People are often
frustrated by the feeling that nobody cares about their problem.
� Demonstrate empathy and understanding. Exercise active listening techniques. This
is where you demonstrate that you understand what the person is saying by
reflecting what they are saying to you in summary form.
� If a client continues to be difficult it may be necessary to terminate the conversation
or the assistance.
� It is important to maintain a professional and calm manner when faced with a difficult
client.
Professionalism
Working in an office environment means that you and your co-workers have an obligation to
conduct yourselves in a professional manner.
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