Saturday, April 25, 2009

"Squeal Rule" Clarified

The day after the Kentucky Supreme Court announced it had approved the first major changes in lawyer ethics rules in 20 years, the Administrative Office of the Courts said some of the changes were incorrectly described in a document released to news outlets and posted on the court's Web site.

One of the errors was in the wording of a new rule that requires lawyers to report the misconduct of other attorneys and judges.

As enacted by the court, the so-called "squeal rule" says an attorney "who knows that another lawyer has committed a violation of the Rules of Professional Conduct that raises a substantial question as to the lawyer's honesty, trustworthiness or fitness as a lawyer in other respects" must report it to the Kentucky Bar Association.

The high court did not, however, adopt a rule that would have allowed lawyers to report confidential information to prevent clients from committing fraud.

And it did not include in its new rules commentary saying it is professional misconduct to manifest by "words or conduct" bias based on race, sex, sexual preference and other grounds.

Full Article and Source:
Office of courts clarifies new rules on lawyer ethics

See also:
Lawyers Must Report Misconduct

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

The new rules are a smoke screen - designed to make the public think reform is in the air. In actuality, it's business as usual.

Anonymous said...

I think your right Anon, the wording is EVERYTHING! And, who do you think approves the final draft of all laws, rules etc.? L A W Y E R S

Anonymous said...

The reality is the bar isn't concerned that lawyers are unethical, dishonest, and sometimes predators. If they cared, they'd act on discipline complaints instead of dismissing most of them.

Anonymous said...

How would people of basically compromised ethics even recognize ethics violations in one of their own?

Anonymous said...

Lawyers squealing on each other? Oh come on, they'll just pay each other off!