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Understanding fiduciary duty

by | Jan 19, 2019 | Legal Malpractice |

A person in Florida who hires an attorney should be able to trust that their legal counsel will live up to their professional expectations. These expectations include what is commonly called a fiduciary duty. As explained by FindLaw, fiduciary duty is essentially the responsibility for a lawyer to act or make decisions in the best interest of their client.

The Houston Chronicle outlines that there are multiple components that go into a lawyer’s responsibility to a client. One of these is the duty to maintain confidentiality unless provided consent by the client to disclose select information. An attorney is also required to allow their client to make decisions about how to proceed with a situation or a case. This means that the lawyer must ensure that the client has sufficient knowledge and understanding with which to do so. Therefore, communication and even some education come into play when discussing fiduciary duty.

Similarly, the attorney must be capable of representing a client and therefore has the responsibility of educating themselves about certain matters if that is needed in order to provide appropriate representation.

A lawyer should avoid conflicts of interest when working with clients. Many people think about the representation of both parties in a case as one example of this type of conflict of interest and that is true. However, a conflict of interest may take many forms that some people might not always think about. One example is gaining a financial profitt from the management of a client’s assets.