Unit 9-Assignment
January 17th, 2012
Legal Ethical Issue
Justin has come forward and has given us information that he had not previously in our earlier meetings. This information and testimony is detrimental to our case and may cause us to lose it. Justin has stated that he is willing to commit perjury in open court to better serve his case. This is an ethical issue that we must deal with before we go to trial. If immediate action is not taken the representing attorney could be disbarred.
Maine Rules of Professional Conduct limits the amount of information that attorneys may reveal to judges and no affiliated members of the case. These rules do not limit the legal actions and information that the attorneys may reveal to the client. There are rules governing the legal teams actions in ethical dilemma’s such as our clients. Rule 8.4 of Professional Conduct is Misconduct. This rule defines professional misconduct as any lawyer that may engage in conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misrepresentation.
Being in a career field that requires one to be professional and have good conduct leaves no room for gray areas. Another Rule that can have disciplinary actions include is 1.6 Confidentiality of Information. This is the rule that we are applying to Mr. King’s case. Paragraph (b) rule 2 state that we as a legal team can only break confidentiality when the clients actions are going to commit a crime that will hurt someone’s financial interests substantially.
To better serve our client, our best professional choice is to ask Mr. King not to testify.
