Can one client consent to an attorney representing another client with an adverse interest? The answer is, "sometimes." To circle back to my original problem ' the former client who wanted me to represent him and his passengers ' it would have been unwise for me to try to represent both driver and passengers. The reason being: if my former client (a driver) was found even just 1% at fault for causing the accident, that would deprive his passengers of a pocket to reach their hands into. Put differently, they might get less money with only one car driver to sue, rather than two.

A court has held: A law firm's representation of both infant passenger and his mother as plaintiffs in personal injury action arising from a collision created a conflict of interest that required the firm's disqualification, although the passenger did not assert a claim against his mother; the passenger's failure to assert a claim against his mother, who was driving at time of collision, did not resolve the issue of her negligence, so as to eliminate potentially differing interests of co-plaintiffs. Shaikh ex rel. Shaikh v. Waiters, 2000, 185 Misc.2d 52.

Finally, and in case you were wondering, while not exactly a "conflict of interest," a lawyer cannot have sexual relations with a client unless a consensual relationship already existed between them before the attorney-client relationship commenced.

New York Regulation Section 1200.29-a states:

(b) A lawyer shall not:

(1) require or demand sexual relations with a client or third party incident to or as a condition of any professional representation;

(2) employ coercion, intimidation, or undue influence in entering into sexual relations with a client; or

(3) in domestic relations matters [such as a divorce], enter into sexual relations with a client during the course of the lawyer's representation of the client.

Believe me, we wouldn't need the rule if these things didn't happen.

Page 2 of 2 :: First | Last :: Prev | 1 2 | Next