@tzaddiq: R’ Tatz expounds on this extensively (I read it in The Thinking Jewish Teenager’s Guide to Life), but I will try to put it in a few sentences.
If someone is, say, a kleptomaniac. He can’t control his impulses to steal. Does he have free will in this area of his life? Is he found liable in her country’s legal system? Probably not. He can’t control his inborn trait to steal. In Judaism however, the “system” works completely different. The urge may very well be outside his area of free will/freedom but the action of stealing is within his free choice. The point of free will is whether he yields to his nature or not.
Bottom line is: You can’t control your background, inborn nature, character traits, and many events that will ultimately affect what type of ordeals you have to overcome. You can blame whatever or whoever you want for the fact that you came across this ordeal, but how you handle the ordeal is your doing entirely, your free will.