SAUL THE SOLICITOR
This episode was classic Slippin' Jimmy. While the previous two episodes had very little to deal with the law and ethics, RICO was chalk full of ethical dilemmas and legal issues.
Let's play softball first. I noticed several tweets about Jimmy trespassing and jumping into the garbage bin. Let's put aside the fact that Jimmy may have been trespassing, ok? The question is whether Jimmy, or any other person could have gone through that trash? The answer, YES! Why? Jimmy did a good job telling you why; you do not have a reasonable expectation of privacy in stuff you put out on your curb. Read this wikipedia page about the 4th amendment case from the Supreme Court that set this precedent.
The second major issue in this case is whether Jimmy was unethical in soliciting all those senior citizens in an attempt to gather clients to sue the nursing home? The answer again, YES! Why? Because his primary motivation was to make money.
.03 Prohibited Solicitations & Payments
(a) A lawyer shall not by in-person contact, or by regulated telephone or other electronic contact as defined in paragraph (f), seek professional employment concerning a matter arising out of a particular occurrence or event, or series of occurrences or events, from a prospective client or nonclient who has not sought the lawyer's advice regarding employment or with whom the lawyer has no family or past or present attorney-client relationship when a significant motive for the lawyer's doing so is the lawyer's pecuniary gain. Notwithstanding the provisions of this paragraph, a lawyer for a qualified nonprofit organization may communicate with the organization's members for the purpose of educating the members to understand the law, to recognize legal problems, to make intelligent selection of counsel, or to use legal services. In those situations where in-person or telephone or other electronic contact is permitted by this paragraph, a lawyer shall not have such a contact with a prospective client if:
(1) the communication involves coercion, duress, fraud, overreaching, intimidation, undue influence, or harassment;
(2) the communication contains information prohibited by Rule 7.02(a); or
(3) the communication contains a false, fraudulent, misleading, deceptive, or unfair statement or claim.
(b) A lawyer shall not pay, give, or offer to pay or give anything of value to a person not licensed to practice law for soliciting prospective clients for, or referring clients or prospective clients to, any lawyer or firm, except that a lawyer may pay reasonable fees for advertising and public relations services rendered in accordance with this Rule and may pay the usual charges of a lawyer referral service that meets the requirements of Occupational Code Title 5, Subtitle B, Chapter 952.
(c) A lawyer, in order to solicit professional employment, shall not pay, give, advance, or offer to pay, give, or advance anything of value, other than actual litigation expenses and other financial assistance as permitted by Rule 1.08(d), to a prospective client or any other person; provided however, this provision does not prohibit the payment of legitimate referral fees as permitted by Rule 1.04(f) or by paragraph (b) of this Rule.
(d) A lawyer shall not enter into an agreement for, charge for, or collect a fee for professional employment obtained in violation of Rule 7.03(a), (b), or (c).
(e) A lawyer shall not participate with or accept referrals from a lawyer referral service unless the lawyer knows or reasonably believes that the lawyer referral service meets the requirements of Occupational Code Title 5, Subtitle B, Chapter 952.
(f) As used in paragraph (a), "regulated telephone or other electronic contact" means any electronic communication initiated by a lawyer or by any person acting on behalf of a lawyer or law firm that will result in the person contacted communicating in a live, interactive manner with any other person by telephone or other electronic means. For purposes of this Rule a website for a lawyer or law firm is not considered a communication initiated by or on behalf of that lawyer or firm.
Comment:
1. In many situations, in-person, telephone, or other prohibited electronic solicitations by lawyers involve well-known opportunities for abuse of prospective clients. Traditionally, the principal concerns presented by such contacts are that they can overbear the prospective client's will, lead to hasty and ill-advised decisions concerning choice of counsel, and be very difficult to police. The approach taken by this Rule may be found in paragraph (f), which prohibits such communications if they are initiated by or on behalf of a lawyer or law firm and will result in the person contacted communicating with any person by telephone or other electronic means. Thus, forms of electronic communications are prohibited that pose comparable dangers to face-to-face solicitations, such as soliciting business in "chat rooms," or transmitting an unsolicited, interactive communication to a prospective client that, when accessed, puts the recipient in direct contact with another person. Those that do not present such opportunities for abuse, such as pre-recorded telephone messages requiring a separate return call to speak to or retain an attorney, or websites that must be accessed by an interested person and that provide relevant and truthful information concerning a lawyer or law firm, are permitted.
2. Nonetheless, paragraphs (a) and (f) unconditionally prohibit those activities only when profit for the lawyer is a significant motive and the solicitation concerns matters arising out of a particular occurrence, event, or series of occurrences or events. The reason this outright ban is so limited is that there are circumstances where the dangers of such contacts can be reduced by less restrictive means. As long as the conditions of sub-paragraphs (a)(1) through (a)(3) are not violated by a given contact, a lawyer may engage in in-person, telephone or other electronic solicitations when the solicitation is unrelated to a specific occurrence, event, or series of occurrences or events. Similarly, subject to the same restrictions, in-person, telephone, or other electronic solicitations are permitted where the prospective client either has a family or past or present attorney-client relationship with the lawyer or where the potential client had previously contacted the lawyer about possible employment in the matter.
No comments:
Post a Comment