Grab Bag
It is the right way to handle it if a creditor of the client seeks to attach funds of the client being held in their lawyer's trust account.
What is take steps to protect the client's interest to the extent reasonably practicable. Give client opportunity to seek to quash. If any of the funds are refundable, do so ahead of the attachment. Follow the law relating to liens and collection of judgments. E-458 (3/15/2024)
Kentucky ethically permits an attorney to have a limited scope of representation in a dissolution proceeding under this formal process.
What is the collaborative law process, as approved by KBA Ethics Opinion E-425 and later codified in Kentucky’s Uniform Collaborative Law Act?
Legal status of a verbal settlement in mediation
What is enforceable?
It is the minimum number of bank accounts that lawyers are advised to have.
What is two, one for their clients' funds, and one for their own law office management expenses?
This occurs when a mediator later represents one of the parties in a same or similar related matter.
What is an ethics violation under SCR 3.130 Rule 1.12, as interpreted by KBA Ethics Opinion E-456? (E-456 & 449)
What arises if a lawyer says they will not use or even learn about AI (Artificial Intelligence).
What is risk of unethical behavior as lawyers are required to keep up with technology and use any reasonable means available to them to represent their clients. E-457
This conduct by the client triggers mandatory withdrawal by the collaborative attorney under both the UCLA and the KBA Ethics Opinion.
What is violation of the collaborative participation agreement, such as acting in bad faith or nondisclosure?
Verbal settlements like any contract require these.
What are offer, acceptance, consideration and mutual assent (meeting of the minds)?
It is the account in which unearned retainers must be deposited.
What is the trust account, not the firm's operational account.
In a mediation, this person, though an attorney, may not give legal advice.
Who is the mediator?
This is when a GAL can take a position other than that taken by their client.
What are when the minor with diminished capacity wants something that the GAL believes is not in their best interests, but making the least-restrictive intrusion into the client's decision-making process. (E-454). If client agrees, the GAL must tell the court that the client disagrees.
Under Kentucky’s UCLA, a collaborative attorney has an ongoing duty during the process to assess for this conduct and must take appropriate action if it is present.
What is screening for domestic violence, coercive control, or other behaviors that impair a party’s ability to participate safely and voluntarily in the collaborative process? (KRS 403.662)
A lawyer's responsibility if their client changes their mind about a settlement
What is abide by client's decision?
They are the two permissible recipients of the interest earned in a lawyer's trust account.
Who are the client or the Bar/State?
This is what a mediator is prohibited from disclosing about the mediation after it is over.
What is any substantive information about the parties or the dispute (Only that it occurred, when and its general conclusion)?
If a lawyer is not up on cyber-security, this is what they must do when protecting their clients' confidential information from attack.
What is retain competent firms to set up their office's cyber security system, but also assure the security firm is careful with it too. (E-446)
This legal duty changed when the UCLA passed in KY, specifically about who must consent to a subsequent representation on a related matter.
What is the fact that the statute creates a new privilege to all participants in the collaborative process, not just the client, which thus requires waiver of privilege of not only the lawyer’s client but also the other client, their attorney, and all nonparty participants in the prior case?
This is what a lawyer must report to the court if their client seeks to repudiate a settlement they agreed to in mediation.
What is tell the truth to the court about what happened, no matter what the consequences?
It is what happens if a lawyer ever overdrafts their trust account.
What is the KBA is notified and Bar Counsel initiates an inquiry; so avoid at all costs and remedy as soon as possible.
This is why a mediator in a case may not also serve as an FOC in the case.
What is the conflicting nature of the roles, including that a mediator cannot testify in the case but an FOC must be available to testify; and what a mediator hears is confidential, while what an FOC hears is part of what he relies upon to make makes a recommendation.
A lawyer witnessing or notarizing the signature of an unpresented party to a settlement-related document
What is an unwise act as the lawyer is not, by definition, an unbiased or neutral party.
In addition to the “limited scope of the representation”, this other explanation must be given to the prospective collaborative client.
What is the fact that collaborative communications are privileged and so protected from disclosure, discovery and are in-admissible?
This is the only circumstance under which a lawyer can be compelled to testify about a settlement being reached by their client.
What is when the client's consent was verbalized not to just the lawyer, but also in the presence of the mediator or other party to it, while keeping confidential anything said just to the lawyer?
Retaining fees in your trust account even after they are earned by you.
What is wrong, prohibited and is commingling of client funds and lawyer funds in what is otherwise-considered a trust account but is no longer operating as such?
A written waiver does not solve this ethical problem for a mediator.
What is the conflict created by prior service as a mediator because informed consent has limits in neutral-role conflicts, and required protection of the integrity of the process.