ABSTRACT
This chapter examines lawyers’ practices, with a specific focus on the practice of negotiation. The chapter again draws upon interview data with lawyers, focussing in particular on their accounts of negotiation strategies outside court. This subtle shift in setting and focus is important for various reasons. I argue that lawyers play a central role in stabilising addiction ‘facts’ and establishing legal ‘truths’ about addiction. I explore how that plays out within the context of two areas: family violence and child protection cases. The chapter explores the gender implications of these processes, and examines how legal practices of truth-making risk securing, reinforcing and perpetuating gendered inequalities for women.
