The power gives your agent control over any assets held in your name alone. If a bank account is owned in your name alone, your attorney-in-fact will have access to it. If you have transferred an asset to your trust, your trustee will have control of the asset.
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A lawyer's job is to listen to your problem, give you legal advice, discuss your options, take instructions about what you want to do and help you understand how the law applies to your case. Your lawyer may even represent you if you go to court. When a lawyer is working for you, they have a number of duties. They must: Follow instructio ns
That said, outside of certain pernicious civil problems that plague many individuals who fall into the access to justice gap—domestic violence, evictions, debt collections, foreclosures—even lawyers likely generally assume that the remainder of the civil system runs relatively smoothly, with both sides of a dispute having access to an attorney.
Suppose you discuss your case with your attorney in a restaurant, loud enough for other diners to overhear the conversation. Can they testify to wh...
Jailhouse conversations between defendants and their attorneys are considered confidential, as long as the discussion takes place in a private area...
For perfectly understandable reasons, defendants sometimes want their parents, spouses, or friends to be present when they consult with their lawye...
Blabbermouth defendants waive (give up) the confidentiality of lawyer-client communications when they disclose those statements to someone else (ot...
Lawyers are expensive and can be hard to find or difficult to deal with which means there is a gap between people who can afford a lawyer and those who can get access to free legal services. And it is probably a big gap.
We believe that a four-pronged approach is the only way to really address the challenges in the access to justice problem: 1 Making courts more accessible 2 Increased funding for nonprofit and public legal services 3 Modernized regulation and ethics rules to incorporate representation of underserved communities 4 Championing new law firm business models that are scalable and client-centric
Usually, when people outside of the legal profession talk about the legal system being imperfect, it is about a criminal justice system that is so suffused with racial bias as to be untenable.
In his former practice, attorney Sam Glover gave away a simple, easy-to-use template to help defendants in debt collection lawsuits answer and serve discovery requests. But a lot of people who downloaded the template paid his firm to help them prepare the documents anyway.
Lawyers who leave their firms and their departing firms have ethical obligations toward the clients of the departing lawyers. These include the duty of communication and the responsibility to enact reasonable notification periods for lawyers who are leaving their firms. Furthermore, law firms cannot restrict departing lawyers’ access to files ...
Law firms have an ethical obligation not to impose notification requirements on departing lawyers that would thwart client choice of counsel or prohibit departing lawyers from providing diligent representation to clients during transition periods, according to the opinion.
The opinion emphasizes that clients determine who will represent them, not anyone else. “Law firms and lawyers may not divide up clients when a law firm dissolves or a lawyer transitions to another firm,” the opinion states. This means that when a departing lawyer was a client’s primary attorney, firms should not assign new lawyers ...
The opinion emphasizes that law firm management has obligations under Model Rule 5.1 to establish “reasonable procedures and policies to assure the ethical transition of client matters when lawyers elect to change firms.”
Upon request, an attorney is required to promptly hand over the contents of your case files. Under the American Bar Association's Model Rule 1.16 (d) (which has been adopted by most U.S.
You can ask your lawyer to send the files directly to you or your new attorney, in which case the safest way to make the request is in writing, via letter or email. Alternatively, you can pick up a copy of your file in person (but contact the office first, so that it has time to locate and review the contents of your file and make a copy for you).
No one likes being fired, including your lawyer. If you are in the midst of a heated legal dispute, and concerned about getting your matter transferred to a new attorney quickly, the last thing you need is a squabble with your old lawyer over your file.
The prosecuting attorney shall disclose to the defendant or his or her attorney all of the following materials and information, if it is in the possession of the prosecuting attorney or if the prosecuting attorney knows it to be in the possession of the investigating agencies:
Courts have held that the U.S. Constitution doesn’t impose a general duty on the prosecution to disclose “material” evidence to the defense. “Material” is generally shorthand for “relevant”; it’s often used to refer to evidence that, if disclosed, could affect the outcome of a case.
“Exculpatory” generally means evidence that tends to contradict the defendant’s supposed guilt or that supports lesser punishment. The evidence doesn’t have to strongly indicate innocence in the way that an alibi, for example, would. It’s generally enough that the evidence provides significant aid to the defendant’s case. So, information that affects the credibility of a critical prosecution witness—like the fact that the prosecution offered its witness leniency in exchange for testimony—is among the kinds of evidence prosecutors have disclose. ( Giglio v. United States, 405 U.S. 150 (1972).)
Types of Discovery. A police report is a common example of discovery. (However, the law might not require disclosure of police reports in all states.) A typical one will contain the names of any victims or witnesses, reports of statements by such people, observations by the officer, and more. The police report is sometimes the first item ...
Brady v. Maryland was a 1963 U.S. Supreme Court case. In it the Court held that it’s a violation of due process for the prosecution to suppress evidence that the defense has requested and that is:
A police report is a common example of discovery. (However, the law might not require disclosure of police reports in all states.) A typical one will contain the names of any victims or witnesses, reports of statements by such people, observations by the officer, and more. The police report is sometimes the first item of discovery ...
“Material” is generally shorthand for “relevant”; it’s often used to refer to evidence that, if disclosed, could affect the outcome of a case.
Legal advice is broader than just litigation-related communications, i.e., it covers all legal advice including transactional and regulatory. Business advice, however, is never privileged, and – for in-house counsel in particular – the line between the two can appear blurry.
The attorney-client privilege applies in limited circumstances, in particular: Requests for legal advice from a client to an attorney. Requests for information from an attorney for information needed to formulate or provide legal advice. The legal advice is actually given by the attorney.
A third party is generally anyone other than (a) the company’s lawyers, (b) employees of the company with a “need to know,” (c) certain agents of the company and the attorney, and (d) any parties with whom the company has a joint defense or common interest agreement.
If you get it wrong, the privilege may be lost. For example, sharing privileged communications with third party contractors/consultants , public relations firms, insurance brokers, and other third parties may destroy the privilege. Whether or not this so depends on the facts and the laws of any particular state.
In some jurisdictions, the self-critical analysis privilege is a qualified privilege that encourages companies to honestly evaluate themselves in light of some problem or incident yet protects the company from that report or analysis from being used against it in litigation.