The impact of Covid-19 pandemic on overall well-being of practicing lawyers.
Journal
PloS one
ISSN: 1932-6203
Titre abrégé: PLoS One
Pays: United States
ID NLM: 101285081
Informations de publication
Date de publication:
2023
2023
Historique:
received:
17
07
2022
accepted:
23
02
2023
entrez:
9
3
2023
pubmed:
10
3
2023
medline:
14
3
2023
Statut:
epublish
Résumé
Every day lawyers provide counsel and advocacy to individuals, groups, and businesses in a multitude of settings. From court room to board room, attorneys are relied upon to guide their clients through difficult situations. In doing this, attorneys all too often internalize the stresses of those that they help. The legal system has long been considered a stressful occupation. This stressful environment was further taxed by the wider societal disruptions in 2020 as we dealt with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Beyond the illness itself, the pandemic forced widespread court closures and made it more difficult to communicate with clients. Based upon a survey of the membership of the Kentucky Bar Association, this paper considers the impact of the pandemic on attorney wellness in a variety of categories. These results demonstrated marked negative impacts on a variety of wellness measures which may result in significant reductions in service provision and efficacy for the people who need legal services. The pandemic made the practice of law harder and more stressful. Attorneys suffered increased incidence of substance abuse, alcohol consumption, and stress during the pandemic. These results were generally worse among those practicing in the areas of criminal law. In light of these adverse psychological effects facing attorneys, the authors argue the need for increased mental health support resources for attorneys, as well as establishing clear steps to raise awareness among the legal community about the importance of mental health and personal wellness.
Identifiants
pubmed: 36893196
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0282836
pii: PONE-D-22-20142
pmc: PMC9997954
doi:
Types de publication
Journal Article
Langues
eng
Sous-ensembles de citation
IM
Pagination
e0282836Informations de copyright
Copyright: © 2023 Fore, Stevenson. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts
The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
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