State Bar Association of North Dakota Ethics Opinions
Free plain-English summaries of legal ethics opinions issued by the State Bar Association of North Dakota, with full citations and source links on every page.
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If a lawyer agreed to store a client's tangible personal property 'temporarily' and the client is now unreachable, must the lawyer keep storing it, or can the property be treated as abandoned?
The lawyer must keep safeguarding it. The committee concluded that Rule 1.15 requires the lawyer to hold the client's tangible personal property with a fiduciary's care until it can be delivered to th…
Can a debt-collection lawyer use a daily bank sweep on a client trust account to disburse collection payments to the client automatically?
Yes, but with safeguards. The committee concluded a lawyer may set up a separate interest-bearing trust account for a debt-collection client and honor a daily sweep, but only if the sweep removes fund…
Where can a North Dakota lawyer deposit credit card payments for earned fees versus advance retainers, and must a subordinate lawyer report a supervisor's credit card trust-account practice?
Credit card payments for already-earned fees and costs go in the firm's general operating account. For refundable advance retainers, the committee called it the most practical approach to route the cr…
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Legal ethics opinions from the State Bar Association of North Dakota 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.