Pa 110 Unit 9 Assignment

After agreeing to take Justin King’s case in the motor vehicle accident with a semi that was carrying beer, it has been found that Mr. King consumed a large amount of alcohol on the day of the crash. He states that before he left Chicago that he had met up with friends where they ate pizza and drank beer. According to him, he had quite a few to drink but claims that while on the stand in the trial that if he is asked, he will blatantly lie about the fact that he was drinking before the accident.

Although the medical records were destroyed by the hospital because of their document retention policies, it could still be found out somehow that Mr. King was under the influence of alcohol at the time of the incident. As a person in the legal field, even though I represent him, I have a duty to make sure that this is not something that could get me in trouble with my career. I have a duty, not only to myself, but to others involved in the case to make sure that any incriminating evidence is brought to the table, even if it could hurt my client’s case. While it is my job to represent him to the best of my ability, I have a duty from a moral standpoint to make sure all the facts are brought to life.

Rule 1.2 in the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct is the Scope of Representation and Allocation of Authority Between Client and Lawyer. The final point in this Rule says that a lawyer should not counsel a client to engage or for that matter assist the client in any conduct that the lawyer knows is fraudulent. It goes on to say that the lawyer can discuss the consequences of the clients conduct. Basically, this rule says that knowing what I know now, if I chose not to tell that he was lying about drinking and driving, that I would be violating the Rules of Conduct. I think the best course of action would be to tell him that we need to come forward with the evidence because if it come out at court it would be a lot worse than if we do it now. Along with this, there are...