South Carolina Bar Ethics Opinions
Free plain-English summaries of legal ethics opinions issued by the South Carolina Bar, with full citations and source links on every page.
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After an insurer overpays a client because of the lawyer's earlier statement, must the lawyer disclose the overpayment or release the refunded money to the client?
The committee concluded the attorney has no duty to disclose to a third party unless disclosure is necessary to prevent the client's fraudulent act, and absent a fraud or crime the attorney must turn …
After an insurer overpays a client because of the lawyer's earlier statement, must the lawyer disclose the overpayment or release the refunded money to the client?
The committee concluded the attorney has no duty to disclose to a third party unless disclosure is necessary to prevent the client's fraudulent act, and absent a fraud or crime the attorney must turn …
Can a lawyer give another state's bar copies of escrow-account checks to help investigate a different lawyer?
The committee concluded that, absent a court order, releasing copies of escrow-account checks that reveal client information to another state bar without the clients' consent would violate Rule 1.6, b…
Can a lawyer employ a convicted felon to serve process or do investigative work, and what duties apply?
The committee concluded that employing a non-attorney convicted felon for administrative work such as service of process violates no South Carolina Rule, but the lawyer must supervise the assistant un…
Can a lawyer own a consumer-loan company that lends to personal-injury plaintiffs, taking assignments of their recoveries, if it never lends to the lawyer's own clients?
The committee concluded that because the company would not lend to the attorney's own clients, the arrangement does not violate Rule 1.8 or Rule 7.2; the lawyer may refer clients to the lender and hon…
Can a lawyer use a CPA to collect tips from the public about an adverse government agency while promising the responders confidentiality?
The committee concluded that whether the promised confidentiality creates an evidentiary privilege is a substantive-law question it could not answer, but it flagged an ethical concern: the lawyer must…
Can a lawyer who represents the buyer or lender at a real estate closing also act as the agent for the title insurer and keep the commission?
The committee concluded a closing lawyer may normally also serve as the title insurer's agent, but must disclose at the outset any adverse impact on the lawyer's judgment from the agency role or the c…
Can a lawyer who represented a mother in a custody case later represent a babysitter accused of abusing the child now in the father's custody?
The committee concluded there is no prohibition on the lawyer taking the new representation, provided the babysitter's interests are not materially adverse to the former client's and the lawyer does n…
Does threatening to file criminal charges to win a civil settlement violate the rules, and must the lawyer who receives the threat report it?
The committee concluded that threatening to present criminal charges solely to gain an advantage in a civil matter violates Rule 4.5; whether the receiving lawyer must report it under Rule 8.3(a) is u…
Can a lawyer representing a wife in a divorce also represent a new client who turns out to be the husband's alleged paramour?
The committee concluded the lawyer cannot represent both, because the information that the second client is the husband's paramour creates a built-in conflict: revealing it would breach the second cli…
Must a lawyer-legislator warn clients up front that the lawyer's representation of them before state agencies will be publicly disclosed?
The committee concluded that no provision of the Rules requires a lawyer-legislator to tell a client that representation before a state agency will ultimately be made public, because such representati…
Can a lawyer advise a divorce client to secretly tape-record the client's telephone conversations with the client's spouse?
The committee concluded that an attorney may not advise a client to tape-record the client's conversations with a spouse, because secretly recording a conversation without the consent or prior knowled…
If a client tells the lawyer not to pay a medical provider's lien out of a settlement, must the lawyer honor that, and what changes if the lawyer signed the assignment?
The committee concluded that where the lawyer did not sign the client's medical lien/assignment, his duty of loyalty requires paying the settlement proceeds to the client, and Rule 1.6 bars revealing …
Can a law firm lease its lawyers through an employee-leasing company whose fee is a portion of the lawyer's pay?
The committee adopted ABA Formal Opinion 88-356 in its entirety, concluding that a firm may use an employee-leasing company to obtain lawyer services where the company's fee is a portion of the lawyer…
Can a lawyer sue an opposing lawyer for malpractice on behalf of the very party his former client defeated, when he holds the former client's confidences?
The committee concluded that the lawyer must protect the confidential information received from his former client, and that unless the former client consents or the information has become generally kn…
Can a firm sue a former insurance-company client over the same kind of benefit-denial claims it once defended, and does reusable legal research create a conflict?
The committee concluded that a Rule 1.9 conflict exists to the extent the prior and present matters share a common course of conduct or company policy, which would make them substantially related; the…
After a closing ends, can the closing attorney report a mortgage broker client's suspected fraud to the lender or law enforcement?
The committee concluded that, where the closing attorney represents the mortgage broker, Rule 1.6 bars revealing information about the broker's fraud to the lender, law enforcement, or Consumer Affair…
Can a lawyer voluntarily disclose the identity of his clients and how much work he does for them, for instance in his own divorce discovery?
The committee concluded that client identity and the amount of work done for a client are information relating to the representation protected by Rule 1.6(a), so the lawyer may not voluntarily disclos…
Can a lawyer run an estate-planning arrangement with an insurance agency where the agent sends customer data, the lawyer writes a memo, and the agent sometimes pays?
The committee concluded the arrangement raises several issues the lawyer must manage: an unsolicited memo may be a solicitation under Rules 7.1 and 7.3, the customer may become a client triggering a R…
Can a private lawyer who sits on a public defender's board represent a co-defendant the public defender cannot take due to a conflict?
The committee concluded that a private lawyer who serves on a public defender or legal services board may represent clients adverse to the agency's clients under Rule 6.3, provided that in the board r…
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Legal ethics opinions from the South Carolina Bar 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.