Perpetuating Stigma: Client Identity in Disability Rights Litigation

In returning to the question of whether and how lawyers can represent clients in disability rights cases in ways that are more congruent with how at least some of these clients self-identify, I find that part of the answer depends, necessarily, on what it is the client is seeking to achieve through a lawsuit in the first place. To the extent that the client's main objective is not an award of compensatory damages, there may be greater opportunity for the client's voice and story to be presented in a (relatively) unfiltered way. For a client whose primary goal is a large compensatory damages award, I am, frandy, less optimistic about the law's ability to hear and 'victim.' Nevertheless, by seeking to expand our perspective on the range of decisions in which clients can and should participate, we can, at a minimum, involve clients more fully in determinations about which case theory(ies) should be used, and the implications those theories have on how the client is to be presented.