The pragmatics of legal advice services in a community legal centre in Australia: domination or facilitation?
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/ijsll.v23i2.20291Keywords:
discourse analysis, legal studies, lawyer-client interaction, register, colloquialism, interruption, expert advice givenAbstract
There are 220 community legal centres in Australia, many of which work on a selfhelp model that entails volunteer lawyers giving advice to clients who will then under take their own legal work. This discourse analytic study explores the discursive interaction between volunteer lawyers and clients in a community legal centre in Brisbane. The analysis investigates the presence of authoritarian versus participatory strategies in order to look at the type of power relation present in their interaction. Two discursive features that characterise lawyer–client conversations were identified as being significant in this type of free advice session: register (formal-technical/informal) and interruptions. The results show that the lawyers tend to make less use of power-related strategies than has been seen in previous studies. Instead, they use a discourse of facilitation (participatory discourse) that is expressed in their register in the form of politeness strategies, use of colloquial language and expressions of support; and in their interruptions in the form of co operative overlapping speech. It is discussed that the use of these discursive features fits with the nature of these particular interactions. That is, the legal advice offered in community legal centres could be viewed as more of an ‘expert advice giving’ rather than a traditional lawyer–client interaction.References
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Andersen, G. (1998) The pragmatic marker like from a relevance-theoretic perspective. In A.H. Jucker and Y. Ziv (eds) Discourse markers: descriptions and theory 147—170. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Antaki, C. (2007) Mental-health practitioners’ use of idiomatic expressions in summarising clients’ accounts. Journal of Pragmatics 39: 527--541.
Archer, D. (2011) Cross-examining lawyers, facework and the adversarial courtroom. Journal of Pragmatics 43: 3216--30.
Atkins, C. G. K. (2005) The failure of formal rights and equality in the clinic: a critique of bioethics. Ethics & Medicine 21. 3: 139--162.
Bogoch, B. (1994) Power, distance and solidarity: models of professional-client interaction in an Israeli legal aid setting. Discourse and Society 5. 1: 65--88.
Bogoch, B. (1997) Gendered lawyering: difference and dominance in lawyer-client interaction. Law & Society Review 31. 4: 677--712.
Bogoch, B. and Danet, D. (1984) Challenge and control in lawyer-client interaction: a case study in an Israeli legal aid office. Text 4. 1-3: 249--275.
Bonnin, J. E.. (2014) To speak with the other's voice: reducing asymmetry and social distance in professional-client communication. Journal of Multicultural Discourses 9. 2:149--171.
Bourdieu, P. (1991) Language and symbolic power. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Christie, C. (2013) The relevance of taboo language: an analysis of the indexical values of swearwords. Journal of Pragmatics 58: 152--169.
Collins, J. W. (1983) Improving the relationship between lawyers and business clients. American Business Law Journal 20. 4: 525--533.Conley, J. M. and O’Barr, W. M. (1990) Rules versus relationships: the ethnography of legal discourse. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Conley, J. M. and O’Barr, W. M. (2005) Just words: law, language and power. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Cunningham, C. D. and McElhinny, B. S. (1995) Taking it to the streets: putting discourse analysis to the service of a public defender’s office. Clinical Law Review 2. 1: 285--314.
Cunningham, C. D. (1999) Evaluating effective lawyer-client communication: an international project moving from research to reform. Fordham Law Review 67. 5: 1959--1986.
Dame, A. P. (2013) "I'm your hero? Like me?": The role of 'expert' in the trans male vlog". Journal of Language and Sexuality 2.1: 40--69.
Danet, B., Hoffman, K. B. and Kermish, N. C. (1980) Obstacles to the study of lawyer-client interaction: the biography of a failure. Law and Society Review 14. 4: 905--922.
Dieckmann, C. (2012) Lawyers and clients in a self-help legal setting: who has the power? Unpublished MA thesis, University of Melbourne, Australia.
Dijkstra, K., Bourgeois, M., Youmans, G., & Hancock, A. (2006). Implications of an advice-giving and teacher role on language production in adults with dementia. The Gerontologist 46. 3: 357--366.
Eades, D. (2003) Participation of second language and second dialect speakers in the legal system. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics 23: 113--133.
Emmison, M., Butler, C. W., and Danby, S. (2011) Script proposals: A device for empowering clients in counselling. Discourse Studies 13. 1: 3--26.
Frawley, W. J. (2003) Register and Style. International Encyclopedia of Linguistics. Oxford University Press.
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Gellhorn, G. (1998) Law and language: an empirically-based model for the opening moments of client interviews. Clinical Law Review 4: 321--358.
Glenn, P. (2010) Interviewer laughs: shared laughter and asymmetries in employment interviews. Journal of Pragmatics, 42, 1485–1498. doi:10.1016/j.pragma.2010.01.009
Goldsmith, D. J. (2000) Soliciting advice: the role of sequential placement in mitigating face threat. Communication Monographs 67. 1: 1--19.
Goldsmith, D. J. (1980) The initial attorney/client consultation: a case history. Southern Speech Communication Journal 45: 394--407.
Haakana, M. (2002) Laughter in medical interaction: from quantification to analysis, and back. Journal of Sociolinguistics 6. 2: 207--235.
Harrison, S., & Barlow, J. (2009) Politeness strategies and advice-giving in an online arthritis workshop. Journal of Politeness Research 5. 1: 93--111.
Hill, J. H. (2008). The Everyday Language of White Racism. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.
Hutchby, I. and Wooffitt, R. (2008) Conversation analysis. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Jay, T and Janschewitz, K. (2008) The pragmatics of swearing. Journal of Politeness Research 4: 267--288.
Jefferson, G. (1986) Notes on 'latency' in overlap onset. Human Studies 9. 2-3: 153--183.
Kirby, M. (2010) Ten commandments for plain language in law. Based on paper presented at the Plain Language Conference, Sydney, Australia on 17 October 2009.
Laserna, C. M., Seih, Y.-T., and Pennebaker, J. W. (2014) Um . . . who like says you know: Filler word use as a function of age, gender, and personality. Journal of Language and Social Psychology 33. 3: 328--338.
Maley, Y., Candlin, C. N., Crichton, J. and Koster, P. (1995) Orientations in lawyer-client interviews. Forensic Linguistics 2. 1:42--55.
Masson, J. (2012) 'I think I do have strategies': lawyers' approaches to parent engagement in care proceedings. Child and Family Social Work 17: 202--211.
Maynard, D. (1991) On the interactional and institutional bases of asymmetry in clinical discourse. American Journal of Sociology 97. 2: 448--495.
Murata, K. (1992) A cross-cultural approach to the analysis of conversation and its implications for language pedagogy, unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Institute of Education, University of London.
Murata, K. (1994) Intrusive or cooperative? A cross-cultural study of interruption. Journal of Pragmatics 21. 4: 385--400.
Polat, B. (2011) Investigating acquisition of discourse markers through a developmental learner corpus. Journal of Pragmatics 43. 15: 3745—3756.
Poulios, A. (2010) Aspects of advice giving and advice receiving in television talk shows. Journal of Greek Linguistics 10: 251--294.
Ratliff, D. A., and Morris, G. H. (1995) Telling how to say it: A way of giving suggestions in family therapy supervision. In G. H. Morris and R. J. Chenail (eds) The talk of the clinic: Explorations in the analysis of medical and therapeutic discourse 131--147). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Rosenthal, D. (1974) Lawyer and client: who’s in charge? New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
Sacks, H., Schegloff, E. A., and Jefferson, G. (1974) A simplest systematics for the organization of turn-taking for conversation. Language 50. 4(1): 696--735.
Felstiner, W. L. F. and Sarat, A. (1992) Enactments of power: negotiating reality and responsibility in lawyer-client interactions. Cornell Law Review 77. 5: 1447--1458.
Seiders, K., Flynn, A. G., Berry, L. L., and Haws, K. L. (2015) Motivating customers to adhere to expert advice in professional services: a medical service context. Journal of Service Research 18. 1: 39pp.
Sidnell, J. (2010) Conversation analysis: an introduction. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.
Simpson, P., and Mayr, A. (2010) Language and power: a resource book. Abingdon: Routledge.
Skelton, J. R., and Hobbs, F. D. R. (1999) Concordancing: use of language-based research in medical communication. The Lancet 353. 9147: 108--111.
Smith, L.F. (1995) Interviewing clients: a linguistic comparison of the “traditional” interview and the “client-centred” interview. Clinical Law Review 1: 541--591.
Tiersma, P. (1999) Legal language. Illinois: The University of Chicago Press.
Tolins, J., and Fox Tree, J. (2014) Addressee Backchannels Steer Narrative Development. Journal of Pragmatics 70: 152--64.
Trinch, S. (2001) The advocate as gatekeeper: the limits of politeness in protective order interviews with Latina survivors of domestic abuse. Journal of Sociolinguistics 5. 4: 475--506.
Trudgill, P. (2000) Sociolinguistics: an introduction to language and society. London: Penguin.
Waring, H. J. (2007) Complex advice acceptance as a resource for managing asymmetries. Text & Talk 27. 1: 107--13.
Zambrano-Paff, M. (2009) El uso de marcadores de cortesía para controlar las relaciones sociales en los tribunales de inmigración. In A. Bravo, N. Hernández Flores and A. Cordisco (eds) Aportes pragmáticos, sociopragmáticos y socioculturales a los estudios de la cortesía en español 135--60. Estocolmo, Buenos Aires: Dunken.
Zuckermann, G. (2003) Language contact and lexical enrichment in Israeli Hebrew. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Andersen, G. (1998) The pragmatic marker like from a relevance-theoretic perspective. In A.H. Jucker and Y. Ziv (eds) Discourse markers: descriptions and theory 147—170. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Antaki, C. (2007) Mental-health practitioners’ use of idiomatic expressions in summarising clients’ accounts. Journal of Pragmatics 39: 527--541.
Archer, D. (2011) Cross-examining lawyers, facework and the adversarial courtroom. Journal of Pragmatics 43: 3216--30.
Atkins, C. G. K. (2005) The failure of formal rights and equality in the clinic: a critique of bioethics. Ethics & Medicine 21. 3: 139--162.
Bogoch, B. (1994) Power, distance and solidarity: models of professional-client interaction in an Israeli legal aid setting. Discourse and Society 5. 1: 65--88.
Bogoch, B. (1997) Gendered lawyering: difference and dominance in lawyer-client interaction. Law & Society Review 31. 4: 677--712.
Bogoch, B. and Danet, D. (1984) Challenge and control in lawyer-client interaction: a case study in an Israeli legal aid office. Text 4. 1-3: 249--275.
Bonnin, J. E.. (2014) To speak with the other's voice: reducing asymmetry and social distance in professional-client communication. Journal of Multicultural Discourses 9. 2:149--171.
Bourdieu, P. (1991) Language and symbolic power. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Christie, C. (2013) The relevance of taboo language: an analysis of the indexical values of swearwords. Journal of Pragmatics 58: 152--169.
Collins, J. W. (1983) Improving the relationship between lawyers and business clients. American Business Law Journal 20. 4: 525--533.Conley, J. M. and O’Barr, W. M. (1990) Rules versus relationships: the ethnography of legal discourse. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Conley, J. M. and O’Barr, W. M. (2005) Just words: law, language and power. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Cunningham, C. D. and McElhinny, B. S. (1995) Taking it to the streets: putting discourse analysis to the service of a public defender’s office. Clinical Law Review 2. 1: 285--314.
Cunningham, C. D. (1999) Evaluating effective lawyer-client communication: an international project moving from research to reform. Fordham Law Review 67. 5: 1959--1986.
Dame, A. P. (2013) "I'm your hero? Like me?": The role of 'expert' in the trans male vlog". Journal of Language and Sexuality 2.1: 40--69.
Danet, B., Hoffman, K. B. and Kermish, N. C. (1980) Obstacles to the study of lawyer-client interaction: the biography of a failure. Law and Society Review 14. 4: 905--922.
Dieckmann, C. (2012) Lawyers and clients in a self-help legal setting: who has the power? Unpublished MA thesis, University of Melbourne, Australia.
Dijkstra, K., Bourgeois, M., Youmans, G., & Hancock, A. (2006). Implications of an advice-giving and teacher role on language production in adults with dementia. The Gerontologist 46. 3: 357--366.
Eades, D. (2003) Participation of second language and second dialect speakers in the legal system. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics 23: 113--133.
Emmison, M., Butler, C. W., and Danby, S. (2011) Script proposals: A device for empowering clients in counselling. Discourse Studies 13. 1: 3--26.
Frawley, W. J. (2003) Register and Style. International Encyclopedia of Linguistics. Oxford University Press.
http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780195139778.001.0001/acref-9780195139778-e-0909.
Gellhorn, G. (1998) Law and language: an empirically-based model for the opening moments of client interviews. Clinical Law Review 4: 321--358.
Glenn, P. (2010) Interviewer laughs: shared laughter and asymmetries in employment interviews. Journal of Pragmatics, 42, 1485–1498. doi:10.1016/j.pragma.2010.01.009
Goldsmith, D. J. (2000) Soliciting advice: the role of sequential placement in mitigating face threat. Communication Monographs 67. 1: 1--19.
Goldsmith, D. J. (1980) The initial attorney/client consultation: a case history. Southern Speech Communication Journal 45: 394--407.
Haakana, M. (2002) Laughter in medical interaction: from quantification to analysis, and back. Journal of Sociolinguistics 6. 2: 207--235.
Harrison, S., & Barlow, J. (2009) Politeness strategies and advice-giving in an online arthritis workshop. Journal of Politeness Research 5. 1: 93--111.
Hill, J. H. (2008). The Everyday Language of White Racism. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.
Hutchby, I. and Wooffitt, R. (2008) Conversation analysis. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Jay, T and Janschewitz, K. (2008) The pragmatics of swearing. Journal of Politeness Research 4: 267--288.
Jefferson, G. (1986) Notes on 'latency' in overlap onset. Human Studies 9. 2-3: 153--183.
Kirby, M. (2010) Ten commandments for plain language in law. Based on paper presented at the Plain Language Conference, Sydney, Australia on 17 October 2009.
Laserna, C. M., Seih, Y.-T., and Pennebaker, J. W. (2014) Um . . . who like says you know: Filler word use as a function of age, gender, and personality. Journal of Language and Social Psychology 33. 3: 328--338.
Maley, Y., Candlin, C. N., Crichton, J. and Koster, P. (1995) Orientations in lawyer-client interviews. Forensic Linguistics 2. 1:42--55.
Masson, J. (2012) 'I think I do have strategies': lawyers' approaches to parent engagement in care proceedings. Child and Family Social Work 17: 202--211.
Maynard, D. (1991) On the interactional and institutional bases of asymmetry in clinical discourse. American Journal of Sociology 97. 2: 448--495.
Murata, K. (1992) A cross-cultural approach to the analysis of conversation and its implications for language pedagogy, unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Institute of Education, University of London.
Murata, K. (1994) Intrusive or cooperative? A cross-cultural study of interruption. Journal of Pragmatics 21. 4: 385--400.
Polat, B. (2011) Investigating acquisition of discourse markers through a developmental learner corpus. Journal of Pragmatics 43. 15: 3745—3756.
Poulios, A. (2010) Aspects of advice giving and advice receiving in television talk shows. Journal of Greek Linguistics 10: 251--294.
Ratliff, D. A., and Morris, G. H. (1995) Telling how to say it: A way of giving suggestions in family therapy supervision. In G. H. Morris and R. J. Chenail (eds) The talk of the clinic: Explorations in the analysis of medical and therapeutic discourse 131--147). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Rosenthal, D. (1974) Lawyer and client: who’s in charge? New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
Sacks, H., Schegloff, E. A., and Jefferson, G. (1974) A simplest systematics for the organization of turn-taking for conversation. Language 50. 4(1): 696--735.
Felstiner, W. L. F. and Sarat, A. (1992) Enactments of power: negotiating reality and responsibility in lawyer-client interactions. Cornell Law Review 77. 5: 1447--1458.
Seiders, K., Flynn, A. G., Berry, L. L., and Haws, K. L. (2015) Motivating customers to adhere to expert advice in professional services: a medical service context. Journal of Service Research 18. 1: 39pp.
Sidnell, J. (2010) Conversation analysis: an introduction. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.
Simpson, P., and Mayr, A. (2010) Language and power: a resource book. Abingdon: Routledge.
Skelton, J. R., and Hobbs, F. D. R. (1999) Concordancing: use of language-based research in medical communication. The Lancet 353. 9147: 108--111.
Smith, L.F. (1995) Interviewing clients: a linguistic comparison of the “traditional” interview and the “client-centred” interview. Clinical Law Review 1: 541--591.
Tiersma, P. (1999) Legal language. Illinois: The University of Chicago Press.
Tolins, J., and Fox Tree, J. (2014) Addressee Backchannels Steer Narrative Development. Journal of Pragmatics 70: 152--64.
Trinch, S. (2001) The advocate as gatekeeper: the limits of politeness in protective order interviews with Latina survivors of domestic abuse. Journal of Sociolinguistics 5. 4: 475--506.
Trudgill, P. (2000) Sociolinguistics: an introduction to language and society. London: Penguin.
Waring, H. J. (2007) Complex advice acceptance as a resource for managing asymmetries. Text & Talk 27. 1: 107--13.
Zambrano-Paff, M. (2009) El uso de marcadores de cortesía para controlar las relaciones sociales en los tribunales de inmigración. In A. Bravo, N. Hernández Flores and A. Cordisco (eds) Aportes pragmáticos, sociopragmáticos y socioculturales a los estudios de la cortesía en español 135--60. Estocolmo, Buenos Aires: Dunken.
Zuckermann, G. (2003) Language contact and lexical enrichment in Israeli Hebrew. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Published
2016-11-21
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Section
Articles
How to Cite
Dieckmann, C., & Rojas-Lizana, I. (2016). The pragmatics of legal advice services in a community legal centre in Australia: domination or facilitation?. International Journal of Speech, Language and the Law, 23(2), 167-193??. https://doi.org/10.1558/ijsll.v23i2.20291
