Shouldn't the lawyer recuse himself?

Question

My brother hired a lawyer to deal with our parents' estate after our dad died last year. Now my brother is being sued by the city on an unrelated issue. The problem is that his own lawyer is the same one that the city hired for the suit against him. Isn't that a conflict of interests? I was under the impression that he could not take a case against one of his own clients.
This is in a small rural town, but is only 14 miles from a much bigger town, and 45 miles from the state capitol. They would have been able to find another lawyer with no problem at all.

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

Call your state's Attorney General's Office and tell them what is happening. The judge should not allow the case to proceed if what you say is true.

Greg · Answer

If your brother is being sued he needs to obtain legal counsel and explain the situation to his lawyer. The lawyer can address the conflict of interest concerning his former lawyer.

Anonymous · Answer

Besides the implied conflict... lawyers are not to injure their clients, while alive or even after passing. By representing your brother in one instance, and the attorney leading the fight against him in another, he is certainly placing himself in a position to be harmful to your brother.

? · Answer

It surely walks the line.   Has your brother retained representation to respond to this suit?   I would suppose this could be brought by his lawyer.

Christian in Jesus · Answer

The best strategy is to ignore it.  It will come up and your attorney can use it to back his unethical behind into a corner.  Just talk to your attorney about it.

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Shouldn't the lawyer recuse himself?

5 Answers