Legal - Right Question Institute

https://rightquestion.org/events/lawyers-and-advocates-as-catalysts-for-client-agency-an-introduction-to-a-practical-strategy-for-building-self-advocacy-skills/

Legal professionals as catalysts for greater client agency: a path to a more just legal system

As legal professionals and advocates in low-income communities, you can play a key role in fostering greater client agency and empowerment. When you share RQI’s simple and powerful skill-building tools as part of your ongoing work, clients acquire essential and transformative skills for asking their own questions and participating in key decisions. Clients become more effective at navigating systems and advocating for themselves and their families. The impact is immediate and has lifelong value.

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RQI provides resources and training to attorneys, social workers, court navigators and community justice volunteers who use our tools to foster greater client agency and empowerment.

What I appreciate about the Right Question Institute is its effort to meet people where they are. Equally important is its recognition that no system, no professionals, no individual dealing daily with large numbers of people can meet all their needs without the avid involvement of those whose needs are to be met.

— Martha Minow, Professor, Harvard Law School

I found ways to help my clients and litigants be better advocates for themselves. They can learn how to ask better questions and gain confidence not only in court but in other areas of their lives.

— Family Court Lawyer, New York

Now, when I go to meetings where people are making decisions that really affect my family, I don’t have to just sit there, not knowing what to say. I think about what I want to know and what I need to know and then I ask the question. What a difference!

— Sugar cane plantation worker, Hawaii

We can … empower clients not only in our consultations but also in the courtroom, where they often feel powerless. A lot of times clients don’t know they have the ability to ask questions — particularly in the courtroom. These skills will be valuable to give them a voice and to think about ways they can gather much-needed information.

— Legal Advocate, New York