Trevor Reid ||Law, Tech and Business Blog

How important is sanity, let alone general mental and emotional health to the practice of law? Law students have a high incidence of depression and a suicide rate second only to medical students. Drug abuse, alcoholism, and stress related illness are attracting more attention among the profession–this is probably a good thing for attorneys and their clients; as is the recognition that troubled human beings can be effective, enterprising, and empathetic at the same time. But, the extent that deeply personal issues of mental health are appropriate subject for bar examiners is not entirely clear. And what prejudices and assumptions come into play when examiners make these inquiries is even less so.

In any case the American Civil Liberties Union has filed a class-action in Indiana claiming that the state’s bar examiners violate federal protections for Americans with disabilities by the way they look into applicants mental health history. Previous suits in New Jersey, Maine, and Rhode Island have adjusted practices there.

The Indiana procedure calls on applicants to divulge any mental health treatment or diagnosis from age sixteen onward. Interestingly,  psycholigists and psychiatrists caution against too much weight on adolescent mental health history as a teenager’s personality and brain are still developing. I also wonder whether this approach  deters aspiring lawyers from seeking help during highschool, college, and graduate school. These are often stressful times when a practiced and friendly ear can save a life.