Legal battles can be mentally and emotionally taxing. If someone you know or love is currently facing a legal dispute, there are multiple ways you can show your support and potentially even bolster their case.
Contents
Support Their Decisions
No matter what, help your friends and family fighting legal battles by supporting their decisions. If you aren’t involved in a court case, the best thing you can do is be on their side. Show your family member or friend moral support, even if you disagree with how they are handling things or what they decide with their lawyers.
Listen More Than You Talk
Practice listening and lending a helpful ear more than voicing your own concerns or ideas. This is especially true if your friend or family member already has legal experts on their side. The best thing you can do is let them vent to you from time to time so they can fight their legal battle with a clear head.
Don’t Judge Your Friends or Family Members
The last thing your friend or family member needs is the judgment of someone they trust. Try to put off your own judgments of the case or their behavior. Stay supportive and receptive at all times, particularly if the legal battle is emotional in nature (such as during a divorce).
Lend Your Assistance Through Service
There may be other ways you can lend your assistance. For example, you can help your friend or family member by giving them the time they need to prepare for their court case.
Some easy ways to help out include:
- Doing chores around the house
- Paying some bills
- Watching children
- And more
By lending your assistance in this way, your friend or family member will be able to focus more intently on their legal battle and have a better chance of reaching a positive resolution.
Stay Level-Headed
If you’re not involved with the legal battle, try to stay level-headed. Be a rock for your friend or family member emotionally and logistically by helping them around the house, letting them vent, and refusing to engage emotionally with others who may be on the other side of an upcoming court case. The steadier you are, the calmer you will make the entire situation.
Help Them with Research
Any legal battle requires a ton of research, from determining your available actions to finding excellent legal representation. You can do your part by helping your friend or family member with this research. Look for lawyers who have the reputation and skills necessary to take their court case to victory.
Or help your friend find out what their legal options are given their current circumstances. You could recommend resources like Family Law Brief, which has a trove of valuable legal information for individuals in need of guidance.
Offer to Pay Legal Fees
In many cases, the best legal experts or offices will come with hefty fees. You can help your friend or family member pay legal fees for these services, or you can help tackle the administrative and filing fees that often come with court cases and legal battles like divorces, child custody cases, tickets, and so on.
Provide Your Testimony (if Applicable)
Depending on your part in the upcoming case, you can support your family member or close friends by offering your testimony as an eyewitness.
Eyewitness accounts are often invaluable in prosecution and defense cases. Speak to your friend and offer your assistance if you feel you have valuable information or testimony to provide.
You should also speak with your friend or family member’s legal counsel and get their opinion on the matter, as they may be able to tell you whether your eyewitness testimony will be a help or a hindrance to their case.
Don’t Give Legal Advice
Lastly, avoid the temptation to give your friend or family member legal advice. It’s easy to feel like a legal expert in this age of the Internet when many of us have access to unparalleled information and legal guides. But being able to look something up on the Internet doesn’t make you a true expert in the ins and outs of legal battles.
Instead, it’s better to support your friend emotionally and let their lawyers do most of the heavy lifting. That’s the best way to avoid influencing your friend into making a disastrous decision or getting in the way of a court case and a successful resolution.
