Key Ethics Developments in E-Discovery and Social Media

Sometimes the most significant developments that impact how lawyers practice their craft appear in the recommendations of their member bar organizations. Three months ago the Litigation Section of the New York State Bar Association released its Social Media Ethics Guidelines on June 9, 2015. Not to be outdone, the State Bar of California issued Formal Opinion No. 2015-193 on June 30, 2015. The personal opinion of this author is that these two documents may be used by judicial, regulatory, and even legislative branches of our state or federal governments to measure how well each of us, as attorneys, functions in the relentlessly changing field of technology and its interactions with attorney ethics. More ›

Do not "E-shame" your Clients

The Colorado Supreme Court has suspended an attorney who posted confidential information about former clients on the Internet. More ›

Advice Leading to Criminal Prosecution not the Cause of the Plaintiff's Injury

In a legal malpractice case, Kumaraperu v. Feldsted (2015) 237 Cal.App.4^th 60, 187 Cal.Rptr. 3d 583, a California intermediate appellate court held that a client’s criminal forgery prosecution allegedly resulting from negligent legal advice was not reasonably foreseeable. Therefore, the Attorneys' advice could not be the proximate cause of the client's injury.

In Kumaraperu, the Plaintiff alleged her Attorneys negligently advised her to draw a check on an account she owned, but on which she was not a signatory, and to deposit the funds into another account, thereby exposing her to criminal forgery prosecution.  More ›