Paralegal Ethics: Major Guidelines

What to Do; What to Avoid

SOURCE:
Page 210, Introduction to Paralegalism, 7th ed

1. Study the ethical rules governing attorneys in your state, including those on the ethical use of paralegals by attorneys. Read the rules. Reread them. Attend seminars on ethics conducted by bar associations and paralegal associations. If you understand when attorneys are vulnerable to charges of unprofessional conduct, you will be better able to assist them in avoiding such charges.

2. Assume that people outside your office do not have a clear understanding of what a paralegal or legal assistant is. Make sure that everyone with whom you come in contact (clients, prospective clients, attorneys, court officials, agency officials, and the public) understands that you are not an attorney. Use the magic words: IANAA: I Am Not An Attorney.

3. Never tell anyone who is not working on a case anything about that case. This includes your spouse, your best friend, and your mother!

4. Know what legal advice is. It is the application of laws or legal principles to the facts of a particular person's legal problem. When you are asked questions that call for legal advice, refuse to be coaxed into providing it, no matter how innocent the question appears to be, no matter how clear it is that you know the correct answer, and no matter how confident your supervisor is that you can handle such questions on your own.

5. Never make contact with an opposing party in a legal dispute, or with anyone closely associated with that party, unless you have the permission of your supervising attorney and of the attorney for the opposing party, if the latter has one.

6. Don’t sign your name to anything if you are not certain that what you are signing is 100 percent accurate and that the law allows a paralegal to sign it. If you are asked to witness someone’s signature, for example, be sure that the document you are witnessing is signed in your presence. Your signature as witness should signify that you watched someone sign the document.

7. Never pad your time sheets by recording time that was not in fact spent on a client matter. Insist that what you submit be 100 percent accurate.

8. Disclose your inexperience. Let your supervisor know if all or part of an assignment is new to you and that you may need additional training and supervision to undertake it competently.

9. Know the common rationalizations for misrepresentation and other unethical conduct:
▪ It’s always done.
▪ The other side does it.
▪ The cause of our client is just.
▪ If I don’t do it, I will jeopardize my job.
Promise yourself that you will not allow any of these rationalizations to entice you to participate in unethical conduct.

10. If what you are asked to do doesn’t feel right, don’t proceed until it does. Adhere to rigorous standards of professional ethics, even if those standards are higher than those followed by attorneys, paralegals, and others around you.