IN THE SERVICE DELIVERY phases of human services activity with clients, ideally plans are implemented, monitored, adjusted, and finally the service relationship is brought to closure at a mutually agreed or known point. However, all of the deficits that can increase legal liability during the screening and assessment stages are equally pertinent.

The intervention and closure phases have intrinsic characteristics that generate their own particular legal risks or accentuate some already canvassed. First, intervention indicates that something is to be done and this in turn requires decisions about the nature of that activity. There is nothing definitive about appropriate types and applications of intervention models, therapies and techniques in the human services, and this can give rise to a range of legal risks. Second, although all human services activities require informed consent, the intervention and data management decisions that accompany these activities are underpinned by consent questions. The law has definite positions on informed consent that demand attention in practice. Third, sensitivity to diversity is another matter that needs to be considered in circumstances of ongoing relationships and service delivery. Fourth, during intervention in particular, although not uniquely, workers and clients can be engaged in intimate and private activity which generates ‘unrealistic and strong emotions and reactions’ (Houston-Vega et al. 1997 p. 63) on both sides. In this environment, role conflicts and boundary violations with legal implications are not unexpected.