Attorneys are expected to behave in an ethical manner no matter what’s going on with their business. They must ensure that they comply with applicable laws. One thing that they must be especially careful not to do is take a client that results in a conflict of interest.
A conflict of interest is something that happens when the attorney is doing something that directly goes against what’s best for their client’s needs. The key point to this is that it can only occur if the attorney is aware of the conflict.
There are several ways that this can happen. One of the most common is that the attorney is representing a person in a case and then take on another client that’s involved with something against the initial client. Conflict of interest is the reason why one attorney can’t represent both parties in a divorce.
It is also possible for law firms to be accused of conflict of interest. One thing that could lead to this is that an attorney leaves a firm for another firm. If the firms have clients on opposite sides of a case, there could be a conflict of interest if the attorney works for either case.
Any attorney who takes on a case should ensure that they can provide diligent and competent representation and that they aren’t accepting a client directly against the interests of any other client. Sometimes, an attorney could accept clients on both sides of a matter as long as the clients both consent to the lawyer’s actions.
If you feel as though you’ve been impacted by attorney or law firm malpractice, you need to find out if you have any legal recourse. You shouldn’t have to be the one to deal with the impacts of situation like this.