Petille

‘The advocate should have the ability to investigate … With domestic violence situations, the advocate should be able to help and represent the person with disability in court, or help them in other ways, like with changing housing or access to finance so that they can be independent of that controlling situation.’

Petille is in her early 40s and lives with depression. She was a lawyer until she incurred a work-related psychological injury a decade ago.

‘They terminated my employment … because I became so unwell,’ Petille told the Royal Commission.

Petille spent several weeks undergoing psychiatric treatment. Her son’s father was supposed to be her carer. But the relationship led to domestic violence and she was in ‘survival mode’ while battling mental illness.

‘And then it just kept getting worse … It was just really scary. And you keep quiet so you've got enough energy to look after your baby and yourself, keep going to your doctors’ appointments, keep taking your medication, you go to the hospital when you're told to.’

Petille’s partner moved out about six years ago. During ongoing custody battles, she feels lawyers have ignored her requests because of her disability.

‘If you have a mental or an intellectual impairment, you're either written off or you are steamrolled. Or you're forced into agreements that you don't agree with and that aren't in your best interests or – where there's a child involved – aren't in their best interests. Because a solicitor, they're working on billables.’

She wanted to use her ex-partners ‘long history of drug abuse’ to continue to block his access to their son.

‘I was trying to communicate that with solicitors, and it was just like, no-one wanted to press it. No-one insisted on drug testing when they should have, that sort of thing. My former solicitors didn't issue subpoenas when I asked them to. They will ignore what you have to say, sort of force you into consent orders.’

Petille said her lawyers should have really been fighting for her, ‘not just pushing around paper’.

‘I've come across too many solicitors who are lacking in advocacy skills and that's a real problem. Where there's significant domestic violence, you really do need someone to help you and help verbalise what's going on.’

Meanwhile, lawyers were charging her for things they weren’t doing.

‘It's just incredible. The last lot of solicitors, I had actually paid $45,000 to them … and I could barely feed us at one point.’

Petille sees an urgent place for highly-skilled legal advocates for people with disability who are present during all contact with lawyers.

‘Litigation's a big thing for anyone, and dealing with, you know, large firms who have the power to wear you down with costs and paperwork. I've had so many advocates who – well, they're meant to be advocates, but they just don't have the skills, they're afraid to speak,’ she said.

‘When you have a disability, you may have good days and bad days. You really need someone to be able to fight for you consistently, a voice that's respected and treated on equal footing. Because sadly, with people with disabilities, there is a stigma.’

A lot of people with disability ‘aren't believed’ on domestic violence, Petille said, from the police to the courts.

‘An advocacy service would be wonderful. If we're really going to make a change, I think that it comes down to the advocates being able to convince a judge or a magistrate of their case.’

She has found her times in court ‘very challenging and quite humiliating’.

‘I had to go in depth about my impairment and make the court understand … If you had an advocate there who could be supportive, that would be great.’