Luckily I’ve never had to hire an attorney for anything in my personal life (knock on wood) but I’ve had many friends that have and I’ve been around attorneys for the last few years. What I’ve learned is that there are some very bad attorneys out there but there are mostly good ones. “Ethical” is a term used very often in the legal field, most likely more than in any other field, to describe how an attorney operates. Are they ethical? Do they operate ethically? What exactly does that mean? How does that compare to competence? Dictionary.com defines “ethical” as
1. pertaining to or dealing with morals or the principles of morality; pertaining to right and wrong in conduct.
2. being in accordance with the rules or standards for right conduct or practice, esp. the standards of a profession: It was not considered ethical for physicians to advertise.
The words to focus on out of those definitions are “standards for right conduct”. What exactly defines the standards? All states have a State Bar and they are the “governing” body in which enforces these standards. They have the ability to revoke the license of a lawyer if they don’t operate ethically. The State Bar of Nevada has rules of professional conduct that every attorney must comply with. Here’s the link to read them in greater detail http://www.leg.state.nv.us/courtrules/rpc.html.
I personally think that this is a bit of a gray area because it doesn’t say specifically that the attorney is required to call you back in a certain amount of time or that they’re required to be competent. We’ll discuss this in greater detail in future posts and of course your feedback is always welcome.