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Conflict of Interest- NY

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DivorceHell

Junior Member
New York, NY

A divorce lawyer and his wife were friends with my wife and I. Not too long ago, we were waiting with our kids on line to see Santa Claus and I discussed bankruptcy options with him, whether it was worth it to get divorced to declare bankruptcy, when he said no and that I could get 7 years in jail for it I asked him about other options. He gave me a referral to a bankruptcy attorney he was a friend of.

Truth be told, I wasn't a huge fan of his and I don't think he was a huge fan of mine. Nevertheless, he knows personal things about me, such as the nature of my debt and that I was thinking about getting divorced to avoid ruining my wife's financial future, especially since one of us needed to have decent credit to move ahead.

Is this a conflict of interest? It was certainly not a routine consultation, but he gave me advice and a referral. His firm is now representing my wife and I'm getting killed, she has control of our assets which are admittedly minimal.
 


quincy

Senior Member
New York, NY

A divorce lawyer and his wife were friends with my wife and I. Not too long ago, we were waiting with our kids on line to see Santa Claus and I discussed bankruptcy options with him, whether it was worth it to get divorced to declare bankruptcy, when he said no and that I could get 7 years in jail for it I asked him about other options. He gave me a referral to a bankruptcy attorney he was a friend of.

Truth be told, I wasn't a huge fan of his and I don't think he was a huge fan of mine. Nevertheless, he knows personal things about me, such as the nature of my debt and that I was thinking about getting divorced to avoid ruining my wife's financial future, especially since one of us needed to have decent credit to move ahead.

Is this a conflict of interest? It was certainly not a routine consultation, but he gave me advice and a referral. His firm is now representing my wife and I'm getting killed, she has control of our assets which are admittedly minimal.
No. It does not appear to be a conflict of interest.

The fact that the attorney knows both you and your wife socially does not preclude him from representing one or the other of you in a divorce action. As he moves forward with his representation of your wife, your financial situation will become known to him anyway, and in far more depth than it is known now.

I would shop around for divorce/bankruptcy attorneys before making a decision to settle on the one referred to you by your wife's attorney.

Here is a link to New York's Rules of Professional Conduct (you can click on the appropriate Rules to read):
http://www.nycourts.gov/rules/jointappellate/ny-rules-prof-conduct-1200.pdf

Good luck.
 
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