INTRO TO PPR AND CREATING AN A/C RELATIONSHIP Flashcards
why should we care about this class?
MPRE is required for admission to the bar.
Getting sued for legal malpractice/disciplined by the bar is not fun. Learn how to avoid that.
You can make a career out of it.
what are the two ways a relationship with a client and lawyer are formed
via rst section 14 and
via 6.2 – when a tribunal with power to do so appoints the lawyer to provide the services
when you have a fact pattern dealing with accepting appointments by a tribunal, what rule do you look to?
in summary, what does it say?
6.2 – accepting appointments
An attorney SHALL not seek to avoid appointments by a tribunal to represent a person EXCEPT for good cause.
6.2 accepting appointments tells us that an attorney cant avoid appointment to rep a person except for good cause. how does 6.2 define good cause? (3 in all)
a) rep of client will likely result in violation of rules or other law
b) repping the client will likely result in unreasonable financial burden
c) the client/cause is so repugnant that it would impair ac relationship or lawyer ability to rep
why do we have rule 6.2 accepting appointments
Its because we have an adversarial system of law, and in order to serve it, we need good attorneys on both sides
board of PR of the supreme court of TN (dealing with a 6.2 accepting appointment issue)
The attorney asking the question practices in Juvenile court and has been appointed to represent minors who have elected to petition the juvenile court for waivers of the parental consent requirement to obtain abortions
Attorney argued 1st amendment violation arguments; as a well as personal malpractice
Feared he would get sued for not doing well enough because he thought the cause so repugnant
issue – via the TN version of the MR. is this good cause enough to avoid accepting appointment?
TN; the standard is a compelling reason NOT good cause! So a bit stricter than Model rules
Under the TN rules, repugnance is not a compelling reason!
Attorney needs to have a compelling reason which is a higher burden than the model rules standard of good cause
Duty of zealous advocacy (preamble paragraph 2)/ competency (rule 1.1) vs duty to accept court appointment (rule 6.2)
Which duty prevails in the MR? how mighy it have impacted the outcome in the TN case with the lawyer not wanting to take on the child abortion case
MR favors duty of zealous advocacy over the duty to accept court appointments!
so the tn case might have come out the other way since the lawyer argued he would not have been able to zelously advofcate for the client because of his views on abortion
what the pros and cons of the MR favoring duty of zealous advocacy over the duty to accept court appointments
Pros – ensures protection of attorney ability to advocate
Con- if taken too far, super unpopular clients won’t be represented
pros/cons of TN stricter standard of compelling reason for an attorney not to take a client
Pros – ensures that everyone has a lawyer
Cons - goes against protection of attorney’s ability to advocate
but wait – i thought that lawyers have discrecftion in who they get to rep? how does 6.2 fit into this?
For the most part, lawyers have DISCRETION about who they rep, these just show the very narrow exception of court appointment
in short, what does preamble 9 say?
Virtually all difficult ethical problems arise from conflict between a lawyer’s responsibilities to clients, to the legal system and to the lawyer’s own interest in remaining an ethical person while earning a satisfactory living…
what does rule 1.2(b) say
ie non endorsement principle
A lawyer’s representation of a client, including representation by appointment, does not constitute an endorsement of the client’s political, economic, social or moral views or activities.
why is it important that we have the 1.2 no endorsment rule
because lawyers ususally have discretion to choose who they rep and the gen public may assofciate who we choose to rep with the fact that we think the same things our clients do
what is the second way an atty client relationship is created (ie outside the scope of court appointment)
via rst 14! its also the most common way for a lawyer client relationship to form
how is a client lawyer relationship formed via the restatment 14
1) a person manifests to a lawyer the person’s intent that the lawyer provide legal services for the person; AND EITHER
(a) the lawyer manifests to the person consent to do so; OR
(b) the lawyer fails to manifest lack of consent to do so, and the lawyer knows or reasonably should know that the person reasonably relies on the lawyer to provide the services.
