Situational Safety and Tactical Communication for Family Lawyers

Practising in family law is rewarding but can also be demanding and challenging. As a family lawyer, we are often dealing with clients who are anxious and emotionally stressed as they try to deal with some of the most traumatic and challenging times in their lives.

It is important as family lawyers that we keep ourselves physically safe, psychologically safe, and professionally safe. The FLS is pleased that Rachel Forrester from CERT has agreed to present a seminar tailored for family lawyers on situational safety and tactical communication. Rachel joined CERT in 2018 after almost 25 years with the New Zealand Police. She has a degree in psychology and criminology both of which help her understand ‘how people tick’ – particularly in high risk or stressful situations. This seminar will cover:

• What is situational safety?
• Keeping ourselves safe physically, psychologically, and professionally
• Situational awareness (in court, home visits, interview rooms – everywhere)
• Use of an effective risk assessment tool (Assess|Plan|Act|Reassess) when embarking on any task that may involve risk
• Using the de-escalation tool ALCAR to deal with highly emotional or agitated people
• Minimising risk when conducting home and court visits, planning exit routes, safe approaches, and assessing risk
• Managing insults and abuse
• Social media and its implications and good safe practice
• Effective and tactical withdrawal from a situation: the need to remove ourselves from situations before they become potentially physically aggressive, why this is important, and why we find it so hard to do!

The training is interactive, dynamic and involves discussion and shared experiences from both the presenter and the group. Because of this, the in-person capacity is limited to 25 people, but the session will be live-streamed.

Date: Thursday 27 March – 5:00pm to 7:30pm
Cost: FLS members: $85 | Non-members: $145
CPD: 2.5 CPD hours
Presenter: Rachel Forrester, Senior Consultant, CERT

This training is an introduction to a more in-depth one day training to be held in Wellington on 8 May and in Auckland on 22 May for up to 15 in-person attendees. The cost of the one-day training is $550. The one-day training will only proceed if there is sufficient interest. If you are interested in attending this training, please email family@lawsociety.org.nz to express your interest. Expressions of interest will be open from now until the middle of April 2025.