NCCC 21 Ch 8 - Legal Ethics

Legal fees

Charges for a lawyer’s time and efforts.

Legal assistant

A person who is trained to work in a legal office. It is often synonymous with paralegal, although some lawyers consider a legal assistant to be someone less trained or educated than a paralegal.

Grievance

A written accusation against a lawyer and filed with the appropriate lawyer disicplinary commisison.

Diligence

An important part of competence involving keeping a client reasonably informed about the status of his or her matter and responding to client requests for information.

Ethics opinions

formal answers (which have a similarity in style to appellate court opinions) to questions about the interpretation or application of the ethics rules.

Canons of Professional Ethics

The first set of ethics rules created by the American Bar Association in 1908.

Informed consent

Acknowledged awareness of the likely consequences for taking a course of action.

Conflict of interest

A situation in which a lawyer is torn between loyalty between two or more clients, or loyalty between client and lawyer.

Waste

The abuse or destructive use of property that is in one’s rightful possession.

Ex parte communication

A lawyer communicating with a judge while the other party’s lawyer is unaware of the communication.

Disbarment

Permanent loss of a law license, ordered by a court that oversees the practice of law.

Competent

In a legal ethics context, the capability to adequately represent the client by possessing the underlying substantive and procedural legal expertise that is needed for the matter.

Hourly billing

A lawyer's hourly rate times the lawyer's billable hours.

Comments

The official remarks that help a reader understand the focus of the Rules in the American Bar Association Model of Rules.

Guidelines

Directed to lawyers to address how to ethically used their employees in support of the clients’ needs.

Flat fee

One fee for legal work, not billed by the hour. A sum-certain cost of the lawyer’s services not based on hourly rate and billable hours.

Duty of confidentiality

A rule requiring lawyers to protect his or her client information including statements made to the lawyer, documents given to the lawyer, and any information the lawyer learns about the client, whatever the source.

Private reprimand

A sanction issued against an attorney for a grievance where the attorney's name is not included in the official censure.

Disciplinary commission

A group of people empowered by its jurisdiction's highest court to investigate grievances against lawyers.

Multistate Performance Test

a test developed by the National Conference of Bar Examiners to evaluate an examinee’s fundamental lawyering skills, rather than measuring substantive legal knowledge.

Multistate Bar Exam

a 200-multiple choice exam covering seven subject areas, developed by the National Conference of Bar Examiners. The Multistate Bar Exam is part of the Uniform Bar Exam.

Tort

A wrong against an individual.

Public reprimand

A sanction issued against an attorney for a grievance where the attorney's name is listed on the official censure.

Nonbillables

Overhead expenses (such as paper clips, rent, utilities) that cannot be charged to a lawyer's client.

Uniform Bar Exam

An exam coordinated by the National Conference of Bar Examiners that includes the Multistate Bar Exam and uniformly tests knowledge and skills required to practice law and results in a portable score that can be transferred for admission to practice law in those jurisdictions that accept the UBE.

License suspension

A lawyer not being able to practice law for a period of time.

Confidential communication

a conversation or writing that expresses personal or private information.

Bar exam

The exam that lawyers have to pass in order to get licensed to practice law.

Model Code of Professional Responsibility

Rules for lawyer conduct created by the American Bar Association in 1969.

Contingency fee

A percentage of the plaintiff's awarded damages or settlement amount. A contingency fee must be in writing and signed by the client.

Soliciting

The act of live-contact attempts to seek new legal clients.

Frivolous suits

A lawsuit meant to harass someone or one that has no basis in law or fact for bringing the claim or appeal.

American Bar Association

The largest voluntary bar association in the United States; it sets academic standards for law schools and formulates a model of ethics codes related to the legal profession.