I’m very sorry Katie. Speaking from experience - I had a client kill herself too - and repeating what the others said, Do Not Blame Yourself. All you are responsible for is to provide the best lawyering you can be expected to provide. If you did that then let yourself off the hook.
My client was charged with felony theft and possession of criminal tools, and with potential criminal forfeiture of a new car, which was pled down to petty theft. She was sentenced to probation and made persona non grata at the mall. She killed herself the following year but it was still quite a shock.
It isn’t your fault, this guy was obviously unstable. If someone commits suicide over something small (er… rather commits suicide at all) they have a serious problem that can’t be attributed to something particular. It’s just when the stress builds up and they snap.
Whatever triggered it, he was going to kill himself for quite some time. You don’t just wake up one day and say “Oh, today is terribly different than every other day of my life, I feel like commiting suicide.”
Whatever happend it wasn’t your fault. I’m just glad he didn’t hurt you.
i think you would be just as shocked no matter what the cause of death. no one expects someone they just spoke to a bit ago, to die in the next minute. a suicide just makes it harder because you could see options other than death. he couldn’t.
As a doc, I learned early that the patient is the one with the disease. I’m there to give them guidance on how they need to deal with it. There must be some similar saying to apply to attorneys with their clients.
