When Your First Attorney Betrays Your Trust
Trust is the essential foundation of every successful attorney-client relationship. It simply has to be there. On one side of this equation, lawyers need clients to be completely honest about the nature of their legal matters and the circumstances behind them — even when those things aren’t particularly flattering. Without this information, the lawyer may not be able to do his or her job.
The other side of this equation is that lawyers themselves must respect the positions of trust they are placed in and must adhere to the highest standards of professional responsibility and ethical conduct at all times. Without this, clients are extremely vulnerable to being taken advantage of by their own legal counsel.
At the law offices of Andrew Rubin, Attorney at Law, we represent clients in Essex County, Bergen County, Hudson County and throughout New Jersey who have been harmed as the result of legal malpractice and ethics violations by their attorneys. In many of these cases, a failure to disclose real or potential conflicts of interest has been the central issue.
What Qualifies As A Conflict Of Interest?
Lawyers often represent many different clients. Occasionally, the interests of the lawyer or of different clients will overlap or be adverse to those of another client. In legal terms, this presents a potential conflict of interest. Specific scenarios include:
- Lawyer-client business relationships
- Civil lawsuits, most often personal injury cases, that are settled too quickly or for too little because the attorney is concerned about getting paid
- Representing one party in a claim against another party whom the lawyer or law firm has represented, or currently represents in other matters — and failing to disclose that fact to either party and obtaining permission to continue
What does not change, no matter how many clients a firm or attorney has or what the potential conflict of interest may be, is that the attorney owes a duty of undivided loyalty to each and every client.
Expert Witness Services
Andrew Rubin has been qualified by New Jersey courts as an expert witness on the standard of care for lawyers, including trial practice and also as to conflicts of interests.
The Next Step
Although our law offices are located in the Essex County city of Montclair, our firm handles legal malpractice claims on behalf of clients throughout the state of New Jersey.
Wherever you are, it is important to recognize that the time you have in which to file a claim may be limited. To preserve any potential malpractice claims, call or contact us about your previous case today.