Rapport building is a huge part of any person-facing role, but in few contexts is it more essential than when working with a court user who has a communication difference or difficulty. This will come as no surprise to legal professionals who represent individuals with a communication need. In such cases, your relationship with a client can be the difference between supporting their effective participation in proceedings, and total communication breakdown (which may create more barriers to their fair involvement in a case).

For intermediaries, too, building an effective rapport is often critical, both when conducting an assessment of a person’s communication profile and needs, and when providing the required level of communication support within proceedings.

Lack of rapport can mean that an individual does not engage with (or even responds negatively to) crucial communication strategies, from comprehension checking (asking the individual to put key information into their own words to check their understanding), to the use of visual aids (implementing visual resources such as diagrams, mind maps and visual timelines to support understanding).

Poor rapport may also mean that the court user does not feel able to indicate when they have not understood, when they require further explanation or when they are experiencing difficulties (e.g., with attention or emotional regulation) which are preventing them from participating effectively.

An effective rapport can  aid clearer two-way communication (for a host of reasons, including improved emotional regulation), as demonstrated in this example from one of our practitioners:

Barriers to rapport building

There are often considerable barriers to effective rapport building between professionals and court users with communication needs. Many court users, for example, have a long history of professional involvement in their lives, and may struggle to trust or engage with ‘people with lanyards’, due to previous negative experiences.

When an intermediary assesses or assists a respondent in care proceedings, for instance, the individual may have had support workers who then provided negative information about their parenting abilities, or may have recently been assessed by a psychologist whose report later concluded there were significant issues which could prevent them from parenting safely for the foreseeable future. Many respondents in these cases are care experienced themselves and, as such, will have experienced intervention and intrusion from professionals across their lifespan.

How intermediaries build rapport

So, how does an intermediary go about building rapport? The answer, as you might expect, is that there is no one size fits all approach or silver bullet. There are some good practice steps which can be explored (which we’ll dip into a little later), but just like every court user – rapport building is completely individual.

Here are some experiences of successful rapport building, shared by our intermediaries, to offer a little insight into how varied building a successful working connection can look:

Getting off on the right foot

One important aspect of building effective rapport as an intermediary is introducing ourselves, our role and its scope clearly. As explored above, a court user may well have experienced considerable professional involvement in their life – and will most certainly have encountered a number of different legal professionals as part of their court proceedings. Clarity around who you are, what you will do, who you work for and your professional responsibilities can help foster trust, and ensure the person does not feel let down when you are unable to fulfil a particular ‘ask’.

Alongside ensuring informed consent, this is one reason we take plenty of time to explain the intermediary role at the outset of assessments (and recap this information when we work with someone in a conference or hearing). As part of this process, we clearly set out our role, the things we can do, and what we can’t do. We also make our position clear. We explain we are ‘impartial’, breaking this concept down (as needed) to explain we do not work for the person’s solicitor, for the local authority, for the police etc. Instead, we work for the court, to make sure the person can understand and take part. We take time to directly check the individual’s understanding of this important information, putting additional strategies in place to support understanding where needed.

If there are other professionals assisting the individual at court (for example an advocate or an interpreter), we’ll work to ensure that these roles are clear, using resources such as visual aids where appropriate.

Transparent, careful introductions like this can help foster trust between an intermediary and court user, and contribute to effective rapport over the long term, by ensuring expectations are clear.

Finding points of connection

In many of the examples above, our intermediaries found points of connection to help them build rapport with the court user they were assessing or assisting. In some cases, that was a shared interest (such as British Sign Language), in others, it was an activity of interest to the court user, which they could do together (playing catch, or looking at a doll).

There are lots of different ways to find points of connection, and how this works will vary considerably depending on the personality and interests of both the court user and the intermediary. Approaches like asking open questions and sharing appropriate information about your personal interests can be really helpful.

For example, it is common for defendants in custody to watch quite a lot of television. Identifying a programme both intermediary and court user have been watching can provide a small point of connection upon which to start building rapport. Many of our staff have found that a working knowledge of Love Island, particularly, can be an especially helpful tool for rapport building with people in custody! As a side note, asking the individual to give a rundown of the latest episode (“I missed it! What happened?”) can be a great way to subtly assess expressive and narrative abilities, while also building rapport.

Identifying and building upon a point of connection can be very effective at breaking down barriers (for example, humanising a professional and establishing a genuine interpersonal connection beyond the professional interaction), which can build trust and openness within the working relationship. This may mean that a court user feels safe disclosing when they have not understood, or feels more comfortable accepting support (which may make them feel self-conscious or exposed, particularly in Family proceedings, where their capacity to parent may be in question).

Acknowledging differences

One theme which came through very strongly when discussing rapport building with our practitioners was positive acknowledgement of differences (alongside seeking points of connection). Barriers such as professional-service user power dynamics, and court users’ (conscious or unconscious) masking strategies can make it really uncomfortable for people to accept or seek support.

Noting the differences between yourself and the court user can make accepting support or expressing a lack of understanding a less daunting prospect. For example, acknowledging that you work in court and legal matters every day, but the processes and terminology will often be unfamiliar for anyone who doesn’t work in this setting.

Spending time getting to know about a court user’s background, interests and experiences can also create opportunities to highlight things that they know more about than you (for instance, if they are completing training in a trade whilst in custody, understand another language, or have a topic of special interest). This can create a sense of equality between you, highlighting that you each have areas of expertise and topics you know less about. The example above, in which the service user taught the intermediary how to fingerspell, is a great example of this concept at work.

Rapport building good practice

There are lots of guides online which set out good practice in terms of rapport building. They typically suggest practices like maintaining good eye contact, mirroring body language, using open body language, smiling, using the individual’s name, etc.

While many of these tips will be helpful in building rapport with some people, it’s important to remember that they may not prove helpful in all instances. For example, some autistic people find eye contact uncomfortable or find interpreting body language overwhelming. It’s therefore really important to be attuned to the communication preferences of the person you are seeking to build rapport with, and to enter each interaction with an open mind and sensitivity to a range of different communication styles.

In general, a position of curiosity can be a really helpful place to start from. Ask yourself, what makes this person feel comfortable or uncomfortable? What are they interested in? What are our similarities and differences? What have their experiences with professionals been like? In some cases, these may be questions you can talk about openly with the individual, in others, there may be an aspect of trial and error (trialling a strategy, noting its impact and implementing or adapting it, as needed).

Recording what works

As our intermediaries develop an understanding of a court user, they carefully document effective communication approaches for that individual, as well as helpful rapport building information (for example, that the person prefers limited eye contact, feels more comfortable when they can sit by an exit, or has a strong interest in fishing).

This information will be recorded in the initial intermediary report, and/or shared in an internal assessment note. Each time an intermediary then works with the individual, detailed case notes will be added to our shared system, ensuring that the practitioner reflects on the effectiveness of different strategies, and shares this information with any colleagues who may work with the court user in the future.

While Communicourt endeavours to provide intermediary consistency, the demands of juggling many different (often unpredictable) cases can mean that a different intermediary needs to step in during proceedings. Our internal documentation and close working relationships mean that any new intermediary joining the case has a detailed understanding of what works, what doesn’t and how to quickly build rapport with the individual in question.

If you would like to learn more about the intermediary role, or explore court communication tips for legal professionals working with an individual with a particular diagnosis, check out The Access Brief. This resource is our free library of information and guides, designed with legal practitioners in mind. It includes bite-sized guides on a wealth of topics, from supporting the participation of a client who has difficulties with emotional regulation, to checking understanding effectively.