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I. Introduction
On August 20, 1986, Patrick Sherrill, a full-time substitute postal carrier, entered the Edmond Post Office in Oklahoma and, in ten minutes, killed fourteen
coworkers and injured six others.1
As a result of that incident, America became acutely aware of the growing problem of workplace violence. As researchers have noted, "[w]hile there had been a small number of limited cases, workers basically vented their anger and frustration in non-violent ways and workplaces were generally free from the threats of intruders. Now, and perhaps permanently, violence has become commonplace."
2 Since the Edmond Post Office incident, serious cases of workplace violence have occurred throughout the United States, touching nearly all professions in one way or
another, and have even affected our school system.
Although few Utah attorneys consider violence in the legal profession to be a problem worthy of their attention, violence against the legal profession, as a whole, increased nationwide
throughout the 1980's and 1990's. Although the legal profession in Utah has not suffered the same level of violence as has been experienced in many other states, Utah lawyers still face
their own dangers. Violence can come from clients, opposing parties, and interested parties, in any field of the legal profession, at anyplace, and at anytime.
II. Studies of Violence Against the Legal Profession
The legal profession has not gone without its own severe problems of violence. If you are working in the legal profession,
whether for a city, county or state government, small or large firm, in-house counsel, or in private practice, the potential for work-related violence is an issue that must be addressed.
Whereas, violent crimes continually declined during the 1990's, violence against the legal profession has been on the increase.3
Although no one has attempted to make a complete and detailed study of violence in the legal profession, some informative studies do exist.
In Frederick S. Calhoun's Hunters and Howlers: Threats and Violence Against Federal Judicial Officials in the United States, the author uses statistics that were gathered by the U.S.
Marshals Service, to provide the most thorough existing study of violence in the legal profession.4
Although the study only examines violence against federal judicial officials, it provides the legal profession with a telling tale. From October 1, 1980, through September 30, 1993, a total of three thousand and ninety-six inappropriate communications/threats and assaults were reportedly made against federal judicial officials. This was an average of two hundred and thirty-eight inappropriate communications/threats and assaults per year.
5 In comparison, seven hundred and ten inappropriate communications/threats were reported by the U.S. Marshals Service in the twelve months ending in 19986
and four hundred and ninety-seven in 1999,7
totaling one thousand, two hundred and seven inappropriate communications/threats and assaults in only a two year period. Furthermore, of the four federal judges killed over the last two centuries, two occurred in the past thirteen years.
8
Admittedly, the U.S. Marshals Service's statistics are not a complete database, in that it is uncertain what percentage of threats and assaults have actually been reported. However, this study does show that incidents of violence against the legal profession at the federal level are increasing.
9
Although no detailed study of violence against the judiciary or legal profession has been made at the state or local level, few people would dispute that the amount of violence is
phenomenally higher than that experienced at the federal level.10 The problems that disrupt state and local courts are far more serious and of more frequent occurrence
than anything the federal courts face.11
The results of an informal 1997 fax survey of members of the ABA Section of Family Law, revealed tha sixty percent of the two hundred and fifty-three respondents had been threatened by an
opposing party in a case, and seventeen percent reported having been threatened by their own client.12
Twelve percent reported having been victims of violence at the hands of either a client or an opposing party at least once.13 Still, only one of four respondents said
that they had taken any special precautions to ensure their own safety.14
Members of the Utah Bar, as well as all members of the American Bar Association, need to understand that the potential for violence exists and should not be ignored.
III. A Survey of the Davis County Bar Association
In December 2000, a survey, entitled; Violence in the Utah Legal Profession, was sent to one hundred and sixty-one members of
the Davis County Bar Association. One hundred and thirty members, representing eighty-one percent of the Davis County Bar, responded to the survey. Thirteen percent reported having been
physically assaulted at least once. Fifty-nine percent reported having been threatened at least once by a client, opposing party, or other interested persons in a litigation. Forty-one
percent of those threatened, considered it serious enough to report to the police. Although these statistics do not necessarily represent the entire state, or what might be found in other
Utah bar associations, they do show that violence against lawyers in the Utah legal profession is not as uncommon as one might have thought.
A. Violent Clients
Violence against the legal profession can come from parties in litigation and other participants who become involved in a case. Of the ninety-four incidents of
violence reported in the Davis County Bar Association survey, twelve incidents were perpetrated against lawyers by their own clients. For example, following a criminal sentencing, one
lawyer's client assaulted him in the court hallway. Although one Davis County attorney took a new client, reopened his divorce case, and won him more money, the client was still unhappy
and repeatedly threatened the attorney. In spite of winning a civil action, another client sent a threatening letter to his lawyer, signed in his own blood.
In the same study, sixty-nine incidents of violence were perpetrated against lawyers by the opposing party in a case. In one incident, a man in a domestic matter became angry when his
wife's lawyer wouldn't dismiss the case and attacked the lawyer in his office. Following a juvenile case that concerned three counts of felony aggravated assault, the minor's mother
assaulted the prosecutor. In November of 2000, one prosecutor received a letter from the Utah State Prison stating that when the prisoner was released, he would kill the prosecutor, his
family, and his friends. One lawyer was warned by a child evaluator that the husband in a divorce case was planning to kill him. Yet another member of the Davis County Bar reported that
he had been threatened by five different people. Some threatened him more than once, and one man who is now in federal prison, has threatened him more than twenty times. Interestingly
enough, the survey also revealed that three assaults and one threat were perpetrated by opposing counsel.
B. "At Risk" Areas of the Profession
Lawyers are in a profession that normally requires them to deal with conflict on a daily basis, and for that reason the occurrence
of violence is always a possibility. The Davis County Bar Association survey points out that violence occurs in numerous areas of the profession; however, the majority of incidents
involved criminal cases and family disputes. As reported by Pamela Horn, a Kansas Bar Assistant and Director of Membership;
The most volatile area appears to be the domestic forum. The types of conflicts engendered by divorces, child custody disputes, termination of parental rights, and other highly charged
emotional circumstances create a particularly fertile environment for potential violence to occur.15
Horn does not identify the domestic forum as the sole area where lawyers are at risk of violence.16
Violence is prevalent in employment, civil cases, and criminal law as well.17
The Davis County Bar Association survey revealed that violence in Utah also occurs in the areas of real estate, medical malpractice, personal injury, collections and bankruptcy. Collected
articles from across the United States corroborate the results of this survey and show that violence has touched numerous fields of the legal profession. For example, in Louisiana, a
client shot and killed the attorney who was representing him in a job-related injury.18 In Florida, a judge was gunned down following an alimony hearing.19
In a sexual assault case, a defendant attempted to hire someone to kill the victim and his attorney.20
A man involved in a loan dispute in Chicago shot and killed his lawyer.21
A man pulled a gun in a law office and began shooting due to his frustration in a bank account and property dispute.22
An attorney who took on child murder and civil right cases was killed as he walked to court.23
In New York, a man who was awaiting charges of stock fraud conspired to murder a Manhattan judge.24 Such incidents are becoming more common with each passing year.
C. Where Attacks Occur
No area in the life of a member of the legal profession is left untouched. It is perhaps for this reason that no formal study has been made which focuses
on violence against lawyers. It must be kept in mind that the workplace of an attorney is not necessarily just the office. A lawyer might travel to visit clients, investigate facts at the
scene of events, take depositions at many locations, and attend various courts. All of these areas could be target locations. Due to the nature of the profession, a lawyer could become a
victim of violence at anyplace at anytime.
Although it seems hard to believe, the courtroom is one of the most dangerous places for lawyers. Securing the courtroom from violent outbursts has been a problem throughout the 1990's,
and there still is no easy solution.25 Because no agency collects data on a statewide or national basis, it is not known exactly how many incidents occur in courtrooms.
26
The only known attempt to study courtroom violence at the state level was made by Barbara E. Smith for the National Sheriffs' Association. In her report, she studied two hundred and forty-three reported cases of court security violations (from 1989 to 1991) that occurred in the one hundred and ninety courthouses that responded to a nationwide survey.
27 Only three surveys were completed and returned by courts in Utah, one each from Salt Lake, St. George, and Uintah County.28
The results of this survey revealed that most incidents occurred in the criminal court.29
Of the two hundred and forty-three security violations, one hundred and seven involved individual attacks that resulted in one hundred and twenty-four injuries. Of the one-hundred and seven attacks, twenty-four percent of the intended victims were judges, five percent were prosecution attorneys and three percent were defense attorneys.
30
Seventy-four percent of the assailants were defendants, eight percent were spectators, four percent were Plaintiffs, six percent had another role in the proceeding, and eight percent had no role at all.
31
Of seventy-five suspects who verbalized a reason to officials for the attack, the most frequently stated were revenge, escape, intimidation, and to influence the court.32
The 1991 study is very informative, but it only represents twenty-nine states and seventy-seven counties nationwide.
Although only three courthouses in three separate Utah counties responded to the 1991 survey, Utah attorneys and judges should not assume that they are safe. A Weapons Report prepared by
court security officers at the Second District Court, Farmington Courthouse, summarized the number of weapons taken at the front door during the month of September 2000.33
In twenty-two working days, the security officers in Farmington took eight hundred and twenty-nine weapons from individuals. This report included pictures of the different kinds of weapons that have been taken from individuals at the door of the courthouse since the new complex opened in April of 1999. These pictures include an extending club, throwing stars, pen knives, pepper mace, razor blades, pocket knives, cork screws, concealed belt-buckle knives, filed-down wrenches and screw-drivers, and home-made self-defense weapons.
I was surprised by the number of weapons that were taken in Farmington during the month of September 2000, so I contacted court security officials in four Utah courthouses in late October
2000 and asked if they would record the number of weapons voluntarily and involuntarily taken from individuals who entered their courthouses during the week of October 30, 2000 to
November 3, 2000. A weapon was defined by court security as "any item that is capable of causing death or serious bodily injury." At the end of that week, the Second District,
Farmington Courthouse, counted two hundred and twenty-nine weapons, the Second District, Matheson Courthouse counted four hundred and eighty-six weapons, the Fourth District Court in
Provo counted one hundred and eighty-nine weapons, and the Second District Court in Ogden counted one-hundred and forty-nine weapons. In total, one thousand and fifty-three weapons were
held at the doors of four Utah courthouses in a five day period. Sargent Skogg, head of the Matheson Courthouse security, noted that it was "a light week" and that several
judges did not hold court that week. Security at the Ogden Courthouse also counted the kinds of weapons they took at the door from October 30, 2000 to November 3, 2000. They took
seventy-six knives, eight pepper sprays, fifty-four key-chain knives, one can of hair-spray, three umbrellas, four mechanic tools, and three pairs of scissors.
The survey of members of the Davis County Bar Association supports the premise that no area of a lawyer's life is untouched. Utah lawyers have been subject to violence in the courtroom,
courthouse hallways, parking lots, in their own offices, and even at home. Their experiences are not uncommon to those of other lawyers around the country. For example, in Washington, a
defendant punched one of his attorneys unconscious in court.34
In Alaska, a sixty-nine year old woman who was supporting herself on two canes, entered the office of the lawyer who was representing the opposing insurance company and shot him in the back with a handgun.
35
Violence against attorneys also occurs beyond the courtroom or office. In Tennessee, a lawyer was shot six times on the courthouse lawn as he was on his way to the parking lot.36
In another situation, a lawyer was killed during a court deposition in Fort Lauderdale.37
An Eleventh Circuit Judge was killed by a mail bomb that was delivered to his home.38
IV. Conclusion
Violence in the legal profession can come from both sides of any given case and reach nearly all aspects of a lawyer's life. Recognizing that the danger exists is
the first step for lawyers to deal with the problem of violence in the profession. Just because there have been relatively few incidents of violence in the Utah legal profession reported
in the news, and only one known shooting at a Utah courthouse, it does not mean that violence is not occurring. It is easy to think "it won't happen to me," but the reality is
that violent crime in the legal profession is on the increase and may happen in your own workplace. Members of the legal profession in Utah need to address the issue of rising workplace
violence and determine what can be done to prevent it from happening to them.
Footnotes
1 Michael D. Kelleher, Profiling the Lethal Employee: Case Studies of Violence in the Workplace 31 (1997).
2 Id. at 32.
3 Whereas, there is no system for reporting
incidents involving violent threats and attacks in the American Bar Association, the general sense is that violence against lawyers is indeed on the increase. Margret Brady, Lawyers as
Victims: While There are no Recorded Statistics, Violence Against the Legal Profession Appears to be on the Upswing, Fin Post, Jan 10, 1998, at 24.
4 Frederick S. Calhoun,
Hunters and Howlers: Threats and Violence Against Federal Judicial Official in the United States, 1789-1993 (U.S. Marshals Service, 1998).
5 Id. at 51.
6 Kim Smith,
Threat Investigator Works to Keep Judges from Harm, Las Vegas Sun, Aug 10, 1999 (visited Nov. 24, 2000) <http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/...0/509159941.html>.
7 Andrew
Wolfson, Judges, Prosecutors Feel Vulnerable: Capps Killing Illustrates Perils they Face at Work, Home, The Courier-Journal Local News, Jun 13, 2000 (visited Nov. 24, 2000)
<http://www.courier-journal.com/localnews/2000/0006/13/000613fear.html>.
8 Calhoun, supra note 6, at 45 (discussing the murders of Judge Richard Daronco of the Southern
District of New York, on May 21, 1988, and Judge Robert S. Vance, of the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, in December of 1989).
9 For additional information from the U.S. Marshals Service, see <http://www.usdoj.gov/marshals/>.
10 Calhoun, supra note 6, at 41.
11 Id. at 29.
12 Kelly McCurry, Family Lawyers Face Threats, Violence, Survey Says, Trial, Feb. 1998, at 91.
13 Lawyers in Harm's Way, 84 A.B.A.J. 93.
14 Id.
15 Pamela Horn, Violence Against Lawyers, 63-Aug. J. Kan. B.A. 6 (1994).
16 Id.
17 Id. at 6.
18 Client Kills Lawyer, 69 A.B.A.J., 1622 (Nov. 1983).
19 Panhandle Mourns 3 Slain in Courthouse, The Miami Herald, Jul. 30, 1987.
20 Man Accused of Plot to Kill Victim, Lawyer, Milwaukee J. & Sentinel, Dec. 2, 1995, at A8.
21 Client Charged in Lawyer's Death, Chic. Trib., May 2, 1996.
22 Neil Steinber, Man Charged in 2 Slaying at Loop Office, Chi. Sun-Times, Feb. 28, 1994, at 11.
23
Arrest made in Lawyer Shooting, Albuquerque Trib., Mar. 6, 2000 (visited Nov. 29, 2000) <www.abqtrib.com/archives/news 00/030700_vigil.shtml>.
24 Man in Stock Fraud Case is Charged with Plotting to Kill Judge Who Raised His Bail, N.Y. Times, Aug. 10, 2000.
25
Douglas P. Shuit, Deputies Still Best Defense Against Violence in Court; Crime: Despite Screening Devices and Inmate Restraints, Outbreaks Happen. It Falls on Bailiffs to Restore Order, Los Angeles Times, Dec. 28, 1998 WL 04583035.
26 Id.
27
William H. Petersen and Barbara E. Smith, Ph.D., Court Security: Training Guidelines and Curricula, National Sheriff's Association (May, 1991), Barbara E. Smith, Ph.D., Appendix: Profiling Court Security Violations: A Guide for Trainers and Court Security Personnel: A Report to the National Sheriff's Association and the State Justice Institute (January, 1991).
28 Id. at 20.
29 Id. at 5.
30 Id. at 12.
31 Id. at 9.
32 Id. at 9-10.
33
Davis County Sheriff: Court Security: Weapons Report: September 2000 (Preparation and Cooperative Effort of Court Security Officers) (Unpublished).
34 Shifflet Defendant Attacks his Lawyer Knocks Attorney Unconscious in Court, Washington Times, Oct. 20, 2000 WL 2000294018.
35 Woman, 69, Gets year for Shooting Lawyer, Anchorage Daily News, Feb. 18, 1999, at B2.
36 Lawyer Shot 6 Times Resumes Work; Man Facing Divorce Held, Com. Appeal (Memphis, TN), Aug. 19, 1997, at B2.
37 Two Shot to Death in Court Office, Peoria J. Star, May 28, 1994, at A2.
38 Mail Bomber Convicted, supra note 30, at A21.
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