It is a known fact that all of us experienced stress at some points in our life, and judges, lawyers, or other legally trained professionals are certainly not an exception. Stressful events differ greatly in severity. Also, these circumstances activate a series of behavioral and biological responses, which help an individual cope with the situation. While short-term stress can be adaptive, prolonged stress can cause mental and physical illness.
Compared with other demanding professional careers like business and medicine, the legal profession is known to be the most stressful. It places high levels of stress on judges, lawyers, and other legally trained professionals. Why is this so? Read on and uncover why law is a stressful profession.
Time Pressure
Time pressure, which includes work overload and insufficient time for their family and self, is one of the primary complaints that legal professionals cited as a contributing factor to their stress. Statistics show that typical lawyers are expected to log at least 1800 billable hours annually, and many lawyers have far exceeded this figure. The 1800 billable hours translate into 7 hours of work per day, which requires one to work for 9-12 hours per day. This is the reason why lawyers take their work at home, work on weekends, and in most cases, they do not take their holiday and vacation time.
Competition
As the number of practicing lawyers increase, the pressure on competition also increases. There are more lawyers today than there were 20 years ago. In addition to this, the law reform, corporate downsizing, and slow economic growth have all contributed to greater competition in the law industry. These and other advances have caused job insecurity, low morale, and less loyalty, which leads to great stress.
Legal roles
Other contributing factors to stress in law profession include the ambiguity and conflict about their legal roles in the society. Many lawyers are burdened by the tremendous weight, which comes with the feeling of being responsible for solving their client’s issues within an environment where mistakes are extremely costly.
Individual characteristics
Aside from the above-mentioned external stressors, the characteristics of the person pursuing a law profession can also be added into the formula that creates stress. For instance, one of the most common personality traits among lawyers is perfectionism, which makes them more vulnerable to stress. While a certain amount of perfectionism is necessary in the law profession, taking it too far can lead to great stress. If everything does not go according to what was planned, most perfectionists are more likely to feel perpetually disappointed.
Another common characteristic among lawyers that contributes to stress is their tendency to become exceedingly analytical thinkers. Research revealed that most lawyers prefer to base their decisions on an emotionally-detached logical analysis. This only suggests that they do not completely appreciate the positive role of emotions in human cognition. Hence, they are more likely to fail in dealing with their own emotions and are insensitive to other people’s feelings.
Adversarial legal system
Also, with today’s adversarial legal system, which stimulates feelings of fear, low self-esteem, aggression, cynicism, and hostility, lawyers who are not proficient in handling these emotions are more likely to feel great stress. Moreover, since not all legal outcomes are “just,” lawyers who are not adept in coping with their emotions are more likely to feel too detached or disappointed.
Overall, these factors do not operate independently but are attached as one in an intricate web called stress. Depending on one’s analytical standpoint, they can act either as the cause or the effect of stress.
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