Monday, April 9, 2018

Indiana Supreme Court Disciplinary Commission announces it will begin to publish advisory opinions; and uses first opinion to find that participating in Avvo creates the risk of violating the rules

The Indiana Supreme Court announced today that it will begin offering ethical guidance to Indiana lawyers and judges via the Supreme Court’s Disciplinary Commission.  The opinions, which will be available online at the Indiana Courts Portal (here), will be non-binding and will be issued in response to prospective or hypothetical questions regarding the application of the ethics rules applicable to Indiana judges and lawyers. (By saying "prospective" there, the court means that it will not offer advice on past conduct.)

The commission made the announcement at the same time it release its first opinion which is on a topic I have written about extensively: whether participating in Avvo Legal Services (and other similar services) would constitute a violation of the rules of professional conduct. 

In the opinion, which is only three pages long, the Commission does not answer the question definitively, but concludes that participating in such programs raises the risk of violation of certain rules, including Rules 1.2(c), 5.4(a), 5.4(c), 7.2(b), 7.3(d) and 7.3(e).

The opinion essentially expresses the conclusions of the Commission rather than explain the analysis it used to reach those conclusions.  However, the conclusions are in accord with opinions published so far in other jurisdictions, all of which so far have reached essentially the same conclusions.  North Carolina is considering a proposed opinion that would conclude the opposite but it has not been adopted yet.  If adopted, it would be the first one to find that participating in Avvo Legal Services would not violate the rules, although it has been reported that North Carolina is also considering amending the rules, which suggests that it would violate the current rules. 

For all my posts on Avvo, go here, scroll down and then read up in chronological order... (ie, the most recent posts will appear at the top of the page.)

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