New Jersey Supreme Court Advisory Committee on Professional Ethics Ethics Opinions
Free plain-English summaries of legal ethics opinions issued by the New Jersey Supreme Court Advisory Committee on Professional Ethics, with full citations and source links on every page.
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Can a lawyer publicly respond to a false or negative online review posted by a client or prospective client?
The Committee concludes a lawyer may respond to a negative online review by stating disagreement with the reviewer's facts, but may not reveal 'information relating to representation' unless it is 'ge…
What are a lawyer's ethical duties when using a third-party vendor to electronically file court documents using the lawyer's credentials?
A lawyer may use third-party e-filing vendors but must exercise reasonable care in selecting one, ensure an enforceable obligation to keep documents confidential and secure (especially sealed filings)…
Can a law firm sell its delinquent accounts receivable to a third party or hire a collection agency to collect unpaid fees from former clients?
Yes, subject to conditions. The Committee concludes a firm may sell delinquent receivables or use a collection agency to collect fees from former clients, because RPC 1.6(d)(2) lets a lawyer reveal co…
Can a lawyer for an estate administrator agree to a surety company's conditions for issuing a bond, such as exercising joint control over estate assets, paying the bond premium, and reporting the client to the surety?
No. The Committee concluded a lawyer may not comply with these conditions: joint control over estate assets and protecting the surety create conflicts under RPC 1.7(a)(2) and 2.1, reporting the client…
Must a lawyer who ghostwrites pleadings or provides unbundled, limited-scope help to a pro se litigant disclose that assistance to the court?
It depends. The Committee concludes limited-scope assistance is permitted under RPC 1.2(c) with informed consent, and disclosure to the court is required only when the help is part of an organized non…
Can a lawyer store and access client files electronically (scanning to PDF, email, cloud or web access) consistent with the ethics rules?
Yes, with safeguards. The Committee concludes the RPCs let a lawyer archive client-file documents electronically and use email or secure websites, but originals that are client property under RPC 1.15…
Can a legal-services organization disclose client-identifying information to a public funding agency that demands it as a condition of funding, and is a client consent form enough?
Generally no. Under In re 544, a client's identity is information relating to the representation protected by RPC 1.6, and it cannot be disclosed to a public or private funder absent a valid statute o…
If someone contacts a New Jersey law firm seeking representation against a company the firm already represents, must the firm tell its corporate client, and can the firm keep representing the company?
No, the firm must not disclose the contact. The would-be client's identity, the fact of the contact, and any information received are confidential under RPC 1.18 (effective January 1, 2004) and, even …
If a client secretly copies or reads the opposing party's confidential documents during litigation, must the lawyer disclose it?
The Committee concluded that where a client surreptitiously read or copied an adversary's confidential documents, the lawyer must disclose the conduct to the adversary, because allowing the client's i…
Must a New Jersey lawyer who withdrew from a case disclose to the court that a former client or a witness may have testified falsely?
The Committee concluded the withdrawn lawyer had no obligation to disclose, because the client's confidences were protected by RPC 1.6, the information was not unequivocal, and in a quasi-criminal mat…
If an employee tells a corporation's lawyer that the company committed crimes, must the lawyer confront the client, withdraw, or report it to authorities?
The Committee concluded the lawyer's client is the corporation, so he must report the employee's allegations up to the president and directors under RPC 1.13(b); he need not withdraw unless the corpor…
Can a law firm hire temporary (per diem) lawyers through a placement agency and pay the agency a percentage-based fee?
The Committee concluded that firms may employ temporary lawyers, with imputed disqualification under RPC 1.10 turning on a functional analysis of the temporary lawyer's access to other clients' inform…
What are a lawyer's duties when a client appears mentally incompetent during a case?
The Committee concluded that the lawyer must try to keep the client informed of the case status unless the lawyer soundly believes she cannot comprehend it or that the communication would harm her hea…
Must a lawyer who learns of a former client's hidden fraud, through a new client, disclose it to the former client and the court?
Yes. The Committee held that the crime-or-fraud exception to the privilege (Evidence Rule 26(2)(a)) and RPC 1.6(b) required the lawyer to notify the court and the former wife of a secret mortgage the …
May a lawyer disclose that a purported accident passenger he also represented submitted a fraudulent insurance claim?
Yes. The Committee held that the facts fall within the RPC 1.6(c) exception authorizing the lawyer to disclose, where he had represented both a driver and a purported passenger and the driver's PIP ca…
May a non-profit legal-services project report client background information to the public and private sources that fund it without violating client confidentiality?
As issued, the opinion concluded yes: the background and eligibility data the project reported to its funders did not reveal client confidences or secrets under the confidentiality rule. The New Jerse…
May a lawyer use a bank's interest-bearing master/subsidiary 'Super Now' escrow account for client trust funds, and can the bank's bookkeeping access to client data be squared with confidentiality?
The opinion concluded the proposed segregated master-and-subsidiary escrow account complied with the trust-account rule, with interest belonging to the client, but that giving bank clerks client infor…
Can two New Jersey lawyers who share office space also share a computer and word-processing system, and still represent opposing clients?
Yes. The opinion concluded that two lawyers in adjacent offices who jointly use word-processing and computer facilities are not thereby 'office associates,' so they are not disqualified from represent…
Can a lawyer tell the media the amount of a personal-injury settlement when that amount is not part of the public record?
No. The opinion concluded it is unethical for a lawyer to disclose to the media the details of a personal-injury settlement that are not a matter of public record, because doing so can reveal a client…
Can a lawyer share office space with a non-lawyer business, like a mortgage company or an insurance underwriter?
Yes. The opinion concluded a lawyer may share office space with a non-lawyer business so long as the separate practices and identities are maintained and client confidences are preserved, and it overr…
Does a lawyer who volunteers as a community mediator have to report crime, fraud, or child abuse learned during a mediation session to authorities?
No. The opinion concluded a lawyer serving as a mediator in a voluntary community program is not required by the disciplinary rules to disclose information learned as a mediator, because no attorney-c…
Must a New Jersey lawyer (including a municipal attorney) disclose a client's zoning or building-code violations discovered during a real estate sale?
No. Both the seller's and buyer's attorneys are barred from disclosing the violations learned in the representation, because no exception to the confidentiality rule applies; but the seller's attorney…
If a New Jersey lawyer is married to an assistant prosecutor, can the lawyers in that spouse's firm still handle criminal defense in the same county?
Yes, with safeguards. The disqualification of the prosecutor's attorney-spouse is not imputed to the firm, so the other lawyers may practice criminal law in the county if the spouse does no criminal w…
When a New Jersey lawyer applies for a casino license, can the lawyer let regulators examine the law firm's books and client accounts?
No, not without client consent. The lawyer and firm must refuse to disclose records containing privileged information or clients' confidences and secrets unless a confidentiality exception applies; if…
Can a law firm sue a person in an unrelated matter when a partner of the firm had earlier consulted with that person about a different, declined case?
Yes. The opinion concluded there was no conflict where the prior consultation involved a wholly unrelated malpractice matter the firm declined to take, and no confidential information from that consul…
Must a lawyer disclose to a welfare agency or prosecutor that a client on public assistance has an undisclosed asset or personal-injury claim?
Not on these facts. The opinion concluded the meager facts presented fell short of clearly establishing that the clients had perpetrated a fraud, so the rule requiring a lawyer to reveal a client's fr…
When a board member gives a board's attorney background information 'in confidence,' can the board later compel the attorney to hand that material over?
Yes. The opinion concluded that the privilege belongs to the board, the actual client, not the individual member; because the member consulted the attorney in his role as board counsel rather than as …
Must a borough attorney report to the ethics committee that the mayor, a licensed but non-practicing lawyer, took unauthorized fees for performing marriages?
Yes. The opinion concluded that because the borough attorney learned of the conduct from a source other than the mayor, the information was not privileged, so DR 1-103 required reporting it to the app…
Can a lawyer represent a husband on appeal in a matrimonial case when the wife once consulted the lawyer's firm about that same matter, even though she never retained it and paid no fee?
No. The opinion concluded the lawyer and all members of his firm were precluded from writing the husband's appeal, because the wife's earlier consultation, though brief and unpaid, created a duty to p…
Will the New Jersey ethics committee say whether a lawyer may represent a CPA who wants to sell information about his employer's fraud, when that turns on unresolved trade-secret and criminal-law questions?
No. The opinion concluded the Committee cannot answer, because resolving the ethical question would require deciding substantive law (trade-secret and criminal liability), which is outside the Committ…
Does the attorney-client privilege bar a lawyer from disclosing facts about a client's immigration status that the lawyer learned in the engagement?
Under this 1972 opinion, no. Treating the client's unlawful presence as a continuing fraud on the United States, the Committee concluded the lawyer was not prevented by the attorney-client privilege f…
Can a lawyer represent a wife in her divorce after he was briefly retained by the woman named as correspondent (an adversary aligned with the husband) in an earlier phase of the same dispute?
No. The opinion concluded the lawyer should withdraw, because he had earlier represented the correspondent, whose interests were adverse to the wife, and switching sides in related matrimonial litigat…
Can a lawyer defend criminal cases in the same county where his spouse serves as an assistant prosecutor?
No. The opinion concluded that defending criminal matters in a county where one's wife is an assistant prosecutor would be improper, because the marital relationship places an undue, perhaps impossibl…
Can a lawyer who once defended one co-defendant now represent the other co-defendant, whose interests are adverse, on a related charge?
Only on strict conditions. The opinion concluded it would be unwise for the lawyer to represent the new co-defendant unless he is convinced beyond doubt the matters are unrelated, no confidences are i…
Can a lawyer represent a wife in a divorce against a husband for whom the lawyer once did unrelated work, like a home purchase and a single collection call?
It depends on confidences. The opinion concluded that, assuming the lawyer obtained no confidences about the husband's finances or resources in the earlier unrelated matters, it would not be improper …
Can a lawyer defend a criminal client when the witnesses against him are officers of a company the same lawyer also represents, if everyone knows and consents?
Yes, on these facts. The opinion concluded that with full disclosure and the client's consent, and no confidences from prior work usable against the client, the lawyer may continue to represent the cr…
When the same insurer covers both the plaintiff and the defendant, can the defense lawyer use the plaintiff's statement to the insurer against the plaintiff at trial?
No. The opinion concluded that where both parties are insured by the same company, a lawyer retained by the insurer to defend may not use the plaintiff's statement to the company against the plaintiff…
Must a divorce lawyer disclose to the court that his client committed adultery, an affirmative defense, or keep it confidential?
Keep it confidential. The opinion concluded that the duty to preserve a client's confidences requires the lawyer not to disclose facts amounting to an affirmative defense (adultery) in a divorce actio…
Can a legal services organization represent a wife in a divorce when its predecessor office had earlier represented the husband in unrelated matters?
No. The opinion concluded that a legal services corporation and its predecessor are treated like a single law partnership, so the predecessor's prior attorney-client relationship with the husband bars…
If an adverse party demands a lawyer's correspondence with his client, can the lawyer hand it over without the client's consent, and is the client's silence consent?
No. The opinion concluded the client's silence is not consent, and absent client consent or a court order it is improper to turn over attorney-client correspondence even under a subpoena; the lawyer m…
If a criminal defendant admits guilt to his lawyer and then takes the stand against advice and denies the charge, what must the lawyer do?
The opinion concluded the attorney should make no mention of the conflict between the client's admission and his sworn testimony, should not withdraw, and should present the case on the basis of the d…
May a lawyer who defended a man in a murder case later represent that man's wife in a divorce action against him?
The opinion concluded the attorney should not undertake the divorce action for the wife of his former criminal client, because his murder defense necessarily involved confidences and secrets, includin…
May a lawyer represent a husband in a divorce when the wife once made unsolicited calls to him that did not seek his services or concern the divorce?
The opinion concluded the attorney is at liberty to represent the husband, because the wife's earlier calls were entirely unsolicited, sought no legal advice or services, and did not concern the divor…
If a wife consults a lawyer about her marital problems but does not retain him, may that lawyer later represent the husband in a divorce?
The opinion concluded the attorney is prevented from representing the husband: once the wife consulted him about her marital problems, Canon 6 and Canon 37 applied even though she did not retain him, …
Can a lawyer's firm defend a wrongful-death action when a partner once represented the deceased in a marital dispute with the plaintiff widow?
The Committee concluded the representation was improper. The partner's knowledge from representing the deceased husband in the prior marital separation was chargeable to the firm and would be used aga…
Can a lawyer who counseled a husband and his second wife about their failing marriage later represent the wife in a divorce against the husband?
The Committee concluded he may not. Having counseled the husband and likely received his confidences while trying to save the marriage, the lawyer could not represent the second wife against him, and …
Can a lawyer give a former client's information and a substitution of attorney to another lawyer without the former client's consent?
No. The Committee concluded the former lawyer may not furnish the requested information or give the substitution without informing the former client and obtaining his consent, because the matters may …
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Legal ethics opinions from the New Jersey Supreme Court Advisory Committee on Professional Ethics interpret the rules of professional conduct for working lawyers, in response to inquiries from members and committees. They are not binding like court discipline decisions, but courts and discipline boards treat formal opinions as substantial guidance on how the rules apply. Every opinion above has a plain-English question and short answer, plus a link to the original source on the bar's site.