Federal Practice Manual for Legal Aid Attorneys: 1.3.2 What Are Your Client’s Goals?
The answer to this question will shape the course of your advocacy strategy as certain approaches will be better than others in achieving clearly identified objectives. In many cases, a client will need to define these objectives in terms of solving the immediate or individual problem, or in terms of solving deeper systemic problems that have manifested themselves in what has happened to the particular client. Effective interviewing and counseling is necessary in order to define problems and objectives.