· The Legal Plan. An important question to ask a lawyer is what the strategy for your case will be and the outcome the lawyer expects. You’ll want to get details on what kind of procedures to expect. Ask how long it will take for the entire case to be resolved. Discuss the legal strategies that will be used. Find out if your attorney will ...
· Rule 1: Address communications to your attorney. This could be your in-house counsel or outside counsel, but for the attorney-client privilege to become effective, it must be addressed to an ...
· Lawyer communication, competency, ethics, and fees are important aspects of the attorney-client relationship. As a summary, you can expect your lawyer to do the following: Give you advice about your legal situation. Stay in contact and keep you informed about your case. Tell you what they think will happen in your case.
Where a client informs counsel of his intent to commit perjury, a lawyer’s first duty is to attempt to dissuade the client from committing perjury. In doing so, the lawyer should advise the client that if the client insists on committing the proposed perjury then the lawyer will be forced to move to withdraw from representation.
The Broker-Lawyer Committee promulgates forms for mandatory use by licensees.
When negotiating contracts that bind a sale, option, lease or rental of any real property, a licensee shall use only the promulgated TREC contract forms with the exceptions of an agent representing herself as a principal, not as an agent or prepared by an attorney.
Terms in this set (20) Who is responsible for filling in the effective date? The broker. This date is also the effective date of the option period. the money must be deposited in a trust account by the close of the business of the second business day after the effective date of the contract.
RealtorsThe effective date should always be filled in on page 8 of the contract and the responsibility for completion falls to the Realtors involved in the transaction.
when the buyer requires another form to be used. According to Section 537.11(a)(3), transactions for which a contract form has been prepared by a principal to the transaction are an exception to the rule that TREC-promulgated forms must be used. A man dies and his property transfers to his heirs through probate.
One of the exceptions for when a licensee must use a TREC-promulgated contract form is in transactions in which the licensee is functioning solely as a principal, not as an agent.
The basic elements required for the agreement to be a legally enforceable contract are: mutual assent, expressed by a valid offer and acceptance; adequate consideration; capacity; and legality. In some states, element of consideration can be satisfied by a valid substitute.
One action you can take is relatively simple: grant the buyer an extension, no strings attached. Your real estate agent can negotiate a new closing date that generally will add an additional 10 to 30 days to the closing date, giving the buyer more time to tie up their loose ends.
A void contract differs from a voidable contract because, while a void contract is one that was never legally valid to begin with (and will never be enforceable at any future point in time), voidable contracts may be legally enforceable once underlying contractual defects are corrected.
By signing the contracts, you're committed by law to buying the property. Once the contracts have been exchanged, the buyer and seller can't back out. The exchange can only happen once your deposit is in place and ready to go. By this stage, you'll have approval for your mortgage.
Legally, one party's failure to fulfill any of its contractual obligations is known as a "breach" of the contract. Depending on the specifics, a breach can occur when a party fails to perform on time, does not perform in accordance with the terms of the agreement, or does not perform at all.
Final Acceptance Date means, in respect of any Offer, the final date for acceptance of such Offer which, if such Offer is extended prior to becoming unconditional, shall be the final date for acceptance of the extended Offer (but, if such Offer is or becomes unconditional, disregarding any additional or further period ...
At the same time, a lawyer’s advice at its best often consists of recommending a course of action in the face of conflicting recommendations of experts. ”.
Consultants, who are Certified Public Accountants or members of other professional organizations, are required to meet certain professional standards. However, other consultants, including those who have been awarded the Certified Franchise Executive (CFE) designation issued by the International Franchise Association Educational Foundation, may not have such mandated professional standards
In the real world, most franchise lawyers routinely provide business advice to their clients as part of their practices. Experienced lawyers routinely deal with a host of business issues, and based on that experience many have the requisite skills to give their clients competent advice on complex business issues.
However, attorneys may risk the loss of the work product doctrine and attorney/client privilege if the underlying purpose of the engagement includes business rather than legal advice. Many licensed outside consultants and business advisors practice their craft to their profession’s professional rigor.
You may be challenged in sustaining the privilege if you simply copy your attorney on your various emails without asking for official legal advice. Instead, to sustain the privilege, a judge will generally want to see that you reached out to your attorney for a legal opinion and recommendation.
Again, not all attorney-client communications will be deemed privileged once submitted in court, so always proceed with caution and continue to communicate in writing as if your document may be used as evidence in court at some point and blown up and placed in front of a jury.
While you may hope that you never need them, it's wisest to bring yourself up to speed with certain elements of "Business Legal 101" to protect yourself and your company from unwanted legal exposure.
The attorney-client privilege is a way to address communication ...
In other words, you can't send an email to your non-attorney boss and mark it "privileged and confidential" because without an attorney on the receiving end to provide legal analysis and advice, there's no mechanism to protect the communication from legal discovery.
Rule 4 : Copy only a limited number of people who have a legitimate need to know the information. Do not copy or share the document with others, or the privilege may be lost. After all, if you copy 15 people on the communication, a court will likely infer that it wasn't all that confidential or proprietary to begin with.
Do not copy or share the document with others, or the privilege may be lost. After all, if you copy 15 people on the communication , a court will likely infer that it wasn't all that confidential or proprietary to begin with. So simply including too many people in the communication could jeopardize the privilege.
Fees. Disputes regarding attorneys' fees are perhaps the most common problem that clients have with their lawyers. Fee disputes typically arise for many reasons, but the following are the most common: Complaints about bills being too high. Disagreements over what kinds of fees would be charged to the client.
Lawyer communication, competency, ethics, and fees are important aspects of an attorney-client relationship. As a summary you can expect your lawyer to do the following: 1 Give you advice about your legal situation 2 Keep you informed about your case 3 Tell you what he or she thinks will happen in your case 4 Allow you to make the important decisions regarding your case 5 Give you an estimate about what your case should cost 6 Assist you in any cost-benefit analyses that you may need 7 Keep in communication with you 8 Inform you of any changes, delays or setbacks 9 Give you the information you need to make good decisions, and 10 Prepare you for your case, including deposition and trial preparation.
Lawyer communication refers to the correspondence and communication between a client and his/her attorney. If you have a lawyer communication problem, you may be wondering if you have a bad attorney or if he or she is doing a poor job on your case. You should know that many states have laws regarding when and how a lawyer must communicate with clients.
If your attorney does not respond within a business day, he or she should provide you with a reason why they were unable to answer your question (typically, if your lawyer is working on multiple cases, he or she may be tied down in court on some days).
Billing at an attorney's rate for work done by a paralegal or legal secretary. Complaints regarding over-charging for time spent on a case. The first thing that you should do upon finding and hiring the right lawyer for your case is to make sure that you get the fee agreement in writing that you can understand.
In addition to lawyer communication problems, you may also have problems with the competency of your lawyer's work. Competency relates to the core knowledge and expertise of an attorney in handling a client's legal issue. You should remember that lawyers are not machines and they are just as capable of making a mistake as anyone else ...
Ordinarily, a lawyer must abide by the client’s decision to testify unless he actually knows that the testimony will be false. In regard to the representation of criminal clients, the Alabama Comment provides, in pertinent part as follows: Comment. * * *.
When a lawyer learns that a client intends to commit perjury or to offer false testimony, the lawyer should counsel the client not to do so. The lawyer should inform the client that if he does testify falsely, the lawyer will have no choice but to withdraw from the matter and to inform the court of the client’s misconduct.
Where a client informs counsel of his intent to commit perjury, a lawyer’s first duty is to attempt to dissuade the client from committing perjury. In doing so, the lawyer should advise the client ...
If the client continues to insist that they will provide false testimony, the lawyer should move to withdraw from representation.
If the client refuses to do so, the lawyer has an ethical obligation to disclose the perjured testimony and/or submission of false evidence to the court. Having a client threaten to commit perjury or actually committing perjury is one of the most difficult ethical dilemmas a lawyer can face.
RULE 3.3 CANDOR TOWARD THE TRIBUNAL. (a) A lawyer shall not knowingly: (1) make a false statement of material fact or law to a tribunal; (2) fail to disclose a material fact to a tribunal when disclosure is necessary to avoid assisting a criminal or fraudulent act by the client; or.
Except in the defense of a criminal accused, the rule generally recognized is that, if necessary to rectify the situation, an advocate must disclose the existence of the client’s deception to the court or to the other party.
All attorneys meet with prospective clients in what is called an initial consultation. This is a first meeting between you and the lawyer to help you both decide whether you want to work together in an attorney-client relationship. At this point, you are both checking each other out, and getting information and advice that can help you with your case regardless of whether you hire that lawyer or any other one.
Remember, the attorney will keep this information confidential, unless required to share it with a court because it is relevant to the legal matter or with law enforcement for a public-safety reason. You may think the information is too trivial or embarrassing to mention, but it may well be extremely important, so share it.
To avoid interruptions, be sure to turn off all cell phones or other electronic devices just before your appointment. Following these tips will help ensure that you have a productive first meeting with the attorney and start a good working relationship should you decide to hire him or her.
All attorneys meet with prospective clients in what is called an initial consultation. This is a first meeting between you and the lawyer to help you both decide whether you want to work together in an attorney-client relationship. At this point, you are both checking each other out, and getting information and advice that can help you ...
If, for example, if a client tells his lawyer that he robbed a bank or lied about assets during a divorce, the lawyer probably can't disclose the information. But if a client initiates a communication with a lawyer for the purpose of committing a crime or an act of fraud in the future, the attorney-client privilege typically doesn't apply.
In addition, the lawyer's report of the statements is admissible at the defendant's trial. ( Shorter v.
The attorney-client privilege is a rule that preserves the confidentiality of communications between lawyers and clients. Under that rule, attorneys may not divulge their clients' secrets, nor may others force them to. The purpose of the privilege is to encourage clients ...
Under that rule, attorneys may not divulge their clients' secrets, nor may others force them to. The purpose of the privilege is to encourage clients to openly share information with their lawyers and to let lawyers provide effective representation.
The attorney-client privilege is, strictly speaking, a rule of evidence. It prevents lawyers from testifying about, and from being forced to testify about, their clients' statements. Independent of that privilege, lawyers also owe their clients a duty of confidentiality.
If someone were to surreptitiously record the conversation, that recording would probably be inadmissible in court.
No matter who hears or learns about a communication, however, the lawyer typically remains obligated not to repeat it.