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Attorney- conflict of interest...

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geoffnu2

Junior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Ohio

Yesterday, my daughter found out her son’s father is taking her to court to try and get visitation rights and shared parenting and to try to dispose of having to pay child support. They were never married. The boy is 12, and has always lived with his mother. Despite breaking up with the father, she has never deprived him of visitation, including the time before he started paying child support.

He was able to have visitation every other weekend and during the week from the time boy was born. He has never been restricted in any way from spending time with the boy. At the request of my daughter through the court when the boy was 4 years old, paternity was verified and he finally started paying child support, but he was not required to pay back support or for any medical bills, etc.

My daughter and her husband have been married for five years. He’s divorced with two children from his previous marriage. He has had to go to court with his ex-wife on child custody and support issues. The attorney who represented him for several years, including the times he’s been to court since he’s been married to my daughter, is now representing the father of the boy!

Isn’t loyalty an essential element in an attorney's relationship to a client? Doesn’t an attorney owe a duty of loyalty to a client (or former client) that prohibits him from representing another party with interests that adversely affect those of his client (or former client?

Doesn’t the Code of Professional Responsibility and the ABA’s rules state that an attorney may not represent an adversary of his former client, if the subject matter of the two representations is "substantially related” and if the attorney could have obtained confidential information in the first representation that could be relevant in the second, regardless whether he actually has obtained any such information or not or whether he intends to use it against his former client?

I thought an attorney is not allowed to represent two clients who are adversaries in a case, because it would be a conflict of interest from a simultaneous representation. My son-in-law, by virtue of marriage to my daughter, is an adversary to the boy’s father and a former client of the attorney now representing him. To me that’s a simultaneous representation.

I thought an attorney is not allowed to represent a new client in a matter which may be adverse to that of a former client, because it would be a conflict of interest from a successive representation. If allowed to represent the boy’s father, it could very well have an adverse effect on my son-in-law, a former client who is married to the boy’s mother.

Isn’t it a conflict of interest when an attorney has been involved in one interest that could possibly corrupt his motivation to act in the other?

According to the standards set forth in the Code of Professional Responsibility and ABA’s Model Rules of Professional Conduct for conflicts of interest between attorney and client, shouldn’t this attorney recuse himself from representing the father? Don’t these rules prohibit an attorney from representing any other party with interests adverse to those of a current (or former) client?What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?
 


csi7

Senior Member
I would ask the question of the bar association.
I have been asked by the office staff of attorneys I visited whether or not I have filed suit before and the names before I have been scheduled for a consultation. In one case, the attorney referred me to another attorney to ensure there would be no potential conflict of interest due to related by marriage, childbirth out of wedlock situation.
 

Mass_Shyster

Senior Member
Husband should write a letter to former attorney explaining the possible conflict. If attorney does not withdraw, contact the bar association.

It may not be an actual conflict, but it's pretty close.
 

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