Reflections on Intermediary practice

Here you will find a collection of articles by intermediaries and other professionals on a range of topics.

*If you would like to contribute to this bank of articles on a topic of your choice, please get in touch with admin@intermediaries-for-justice.org

Intermediaries for defendants, David Wurtzel (2014)

I feel as if I were there at the beginning. In March 2007 I spoke to the Midland Circuit of the Bar about intermediaries. The scheme was still in the pilot period and awareness of it was low. A barrister came up to me afterwards and explained that his lay client who was appealing a conviction in the magistrates’ court bore all the hallmarks of a ‘vulnerable witness’. Could an intermediary help this vulnerable defendant when giving his evidence? An intermediary did, and I think she was the first to do so.

Supervision for intermediaries, Dr Catherine O'Neill, (2014)

What is supervision? Is it necessary?
Being on the front line in the role of an Intermediary can be very challenging, and at times distressing. Although many of us are experienced clinicians, the effect of vicarious/secondary trauma cannot be underestimated.

“The expectation that we can be immersed in suffering and loss on a daily basis and not be touched by it is as unrealistic as expecting to be able to walk through water without getting wet.” (Green 2013)