I Have a Question about Law...

imagoodgurl4 · Jan 1, 2007

I have a minor character who is in jail. Initially, I had planned for her to wind up with an attorney provided from the state, but my female MC is a lawyer, and also the sister of the minor character in jail. It occured to me as I was reworking a few things in my wip that the story would would work out so much better if the female MC can be her sister's lawyer. I'm sure this would cause a conflict of interest, but is it something doable if proper contracts are signed?

Any help would be much appreciated.

Elektra · Jan 1, 2007

Wouldn't the sister just step in and offer her help? Why would she ask for state council if her sister is a lawyer?

imagoodgurl4 · Jan 1, 2007

Because I didn't know about the whole conflict of interest thing. I haven't written any of this yet...I was just outlining when the idea occurred to me.

rugcat · Jan 1, 2007

There's no conflict of interest created by a lawyer defending a relative. It may not be advisable since emotions can affect judgement, but there's nothing unethical about it.

Now if she was a DA and had to prosecute her sister - there's your conflict of interest.

flannelberry · Jan 1, 2007

I don't think it's conflict of interest here. It would be frowned upon but in most cases you can elect to represent yourself right? It's not like the lawyer has to be objective - now if the judge were the sister, you'd have an interesting story and a definite conflict of interest.

FWIW - I asked a friend who's a lawyer and she said she wouldn't want to be a sibs lawyer because of how hard it would be to have to hear some of the stuff and the horrible feeling - not to mention conflict - that could happe if they lost.

IHTH

imagoodgurl4 · Jan 1, 2007

rugcat: Thanks. I wasn't sure. I read a book once where a wife was an ADA and the husband a lawyer and they had to face each other in court. There was paperwork signed in the story and stuff for the conflict of interest issue, but I was not sure if it applied to the defense representing a family member.

flannelberry: Thanks for the information. It's very useful. I need the sister to be the lawyer more for a lot of the inside information she will have which will ultimately move my story forward. I just want my story to be as believable as possible.

Thansk a lot, guys!

JanDarby · Jan 2, 2007

What Rugcat said is correct. No conflict.

One issue you need to resolve: most lawyers don't know anything about criminal law. (For instance, I don't. At least, nothing beyond what I learned first year of law school and memorized to pass the bar exam.) Like everything else in the law these days, criminal work is a specialized field.

And when you said "minor character," did you mean "secondary character" or a character who is a minor? If it's the latter, you're talking about juvenile law, which even fewer lawyers know anything about unless it's their specialty.

So, if you want it to be credible that the main character is representing her sister, make sure that she's a criminal defense lawyer, or at least has had experience doing that sometime in her career. Otherwise, she would more likely find a colleague who does specialize in the field to represent her sister, which would be less stressful for everyone and would be more beneficial to her sister. A lawyer who treads in unknown waters is more harmful to the client than helpful.

JD, not giving individual legal advice, just general information.

imagoodgurl4 · Jan 2, 2007

JanDarby said:
What Rugcat said is correct. No conflict.

One issue you need to resolve: most lawyers don't know anything about criminal law. (For instance, I don't. At least, nothing beyond what I learned first year of law school and memorized to pass the bar exam.) Like everything else in the law these days, criminal work is a specialized field.

And when you said "minor character," did you mean "secondary character" or a character who is a minor? If it's the latter, you're talking about juvenile law, which even fewer lawyers know anything about unless it's their specialty.

So, if you want it to be credible that the main character is representing her sister, make sure that she's a criminal defense lawyer, or at least has had experience doing that sometime in her career. Otherwise, she would more likely find a colleague who does specialize in the field to represent her sister, which would be less stressful for everyone and would be more beneficial to her sister. A lawyer who treads in unknown waters is more harmful to the client than helpful.

JD, not giving individual legal advice, just general information.

Yes, my character is a defense attorney (it fits with her personality) and when I said minor I meant secondary. My apologies for the confusion.
The whole lawyer thing is only a small part of the plot, so I'm not too worried about the ramifications of representing a sibling, I just wanted to make sure that it was something feasible. Thanks for the information.

ORION · Jan 2, 2007

When I have a question like this I ask a lawyer in the state that my story takes place. They have all been really willing to help and sometimes offer unique "legal" scenarios.
Not using resources that can answer questions like this may allow inaccuracies into your work.
In addition when your novel is sold - an editor will ask about this during the line edit.

imagoodgurl4 · Jan 2, 2007

Thanks Orion. I have an aunt who works as a court stenographer here in Massachusetts, I will see if I can ask her if she knows any defense lawyers who can maybe answer my question.

farfromfearless · Jan 2, 2007

Siblings represent each other all the time; I'm definitely not an expert with American law or anything so take my comment with a grain of salt.

priceless1 · Jan 2, 2007

imagoodgurl4 said:
I have a minor character who is in jail. Initially, I had planned for her to wind up with an attorney provided from the state, but my female MC is a lawyer, and also the sister of the minor character in jail. It occured to me as I was reworking a few things in my wip that the story would would work out so much better if the female MC can be her sister's lawyer. I'm sure this would cause a conflict of interest, but is it something doable if proper contracts are signed?

Any help would be much appreciated.

My brother is an attorney, and he's represented members of my family any number of times. There is no confict of interest.

imagoodgurl4 · Jan 2, 2007

Thanks, priceless1.

Cathy C · Jan 2, 2007

Yeah, I worked for a law firm for about sixteen years. Every attorney there considered their families to be the bane of their existence, work-wise. They were constantly asked to step outside their field of practice, which meant hours spent at the law library to brush up on whatever was being "expected" of them in order to keep a happy home life. Existing clients did the same thing (we did real estate, construction and land development.) "Hey, my best employee is sitting in jail for a DUI. Can you help him? I can't finish the job I'm working on without him." Etc., etc.

Eventually, the firm wound up hiring a couple of newbie attorneys straight out of law school and turning them into specialists in all the weird things that cropped up (divorce, elder/estate law, DUI, criminal, personal injury.) :tongue

imagoodgurl4 · Jan 2, 2007

I've worked for three architecture firms and one of the ones I worked for had a contractor's whose best employee was in jail for drunk driving charge, too. Maybe they know each other, lol.

But thanks for the insight. I wasn't sure if it was one of those things that you can do but you don't do. Like a heart surgeon operating on his own child kind of thing.

Cathy C · Jan 2, 2007

The only real "don't do" is in a family OF attorneys, representing a sibling/parent on a malpractice charge. That's sort of frowned on by the courts. You can do it, but hardly anybody does. But any other case is fair game (and sort of expected by the courts, in reality.)

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