Why do we hide our ethics opinions?

By: John Cord April 11, 2011

I was doing some research on personal injury protection (PIP) benefits the other day. PIP is a benefit under many automobile insurance policies that provides money for, among other things, medical expenses and lost wages regardless of fault. A client had come to us after being briefly represented by another lawyer, and that lawyer’s retainer ...

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2 comments

isolde
April 14, 2011 at 10:10 am

Ethics opinions are MSBA work product: a benefit to members who pay their dues. There are reported cases on these issues which represent precedent. You have access to them for free. An ethics opinion is a legal opinion about what it or is not permissible under the rules. If you want legal advice, pay for it.

The “rules”, by the way, are published and are available to the public. As are the elements of negligence. Do you tell your clients for free how to prove their negligence cases?
John Cord
April 17, 2011 at 10:07 am

@isolde: I understand that this is MSBA work product, and they have every right to give it only to members. I simply believe that it would be a good public service to provide those opinions to the public, as well.

I have at least one call a week where someone wants to handle their negligence case on their own, or where we cannot take a case for one reason or another. I’ll spend 15 or 20 minutes with them describing resources available to them, and outlining some of their options. It’s a public service.