Opinion ID: 1662210
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Specification 1(c): Advances to Thomas

Text: Edwins frankly admitted that he had advanced to Thomas on various occasions sums of money ($20, $50, $30, $10, etc.), which totaled $894 in all. Additionally, he had bought tires ($30.41), paid three car notes ($67.50 each), paid two other finance notes ($31.04 each), and arranged for and paid for Thomas's hospitalization and operation ($579.25) in connection with a non-accident related painful condition. In the latter instance, he had also paid Mrs. Thomas's hotel bill ($36.04), so that she could be near Thomas during his hospitalization. Also, not long after Thomas had retained him, Edwins had arranged for Thomas to receive a $650 loan from a finance company (partially owned by Edwins). Since Thomas did not pay it when due, Edwins paid it in its then due amount of $910. Thomas admitted that, upon his request and on his seriatim pleas that he was in need, he had been able to receive about $2,000 in cash advances from Edwins. Under cross-examination, he also conceded that, at his request, the other nonlegal expenses shown (tires, car notes, hospitalization, wife's hotel room, etc.) had also been paid by Edwins. In summary, the final accounting of Edwins to Thomas showed that he had advanced $4,210 in all, of which $1,480.01 was for direct expenses of preparing for trial. [1] However, a total of $2,733.12 (including $579.25 for hospitalization and surgery for a non-accident related illness) represents a type of advance which is arguably prohibited by the letter of Disciplinary Rule 5-103(B): While representing a client in connection with contemplated or pending litigation, a lawyer shall not advance or guarantee financial assistance to his client, except that the lawyer may advance or guarantee the expenses of litigation, including court costs, expenses of investigation, expenses of medical examination, and costs of obtaining and presenting evidence, provided the client remains ultimately liable for such expenses. (Italics ours.) Nevertheless, under the circumstances here shown, we are unwilling to hold that the spirit or the intent of the disciplinary rule is violated by the advance or guarantee by a lawyer to a client (who has already retained him) of minimal living expenses, of minor sums necessary to prevent foreclosures, or of necessary medical treatment. In the first place, the disciplinary rule was adopted to implement Canon 5: A lawyer should exercise independent professional judgment on behalf of a client. In interpreting the disciplinary rule, we should do so in the light of the canon and the ethical considerations on which it is based. At least two of the ethical considerations point out policies which permit lawyer-client fee arrangements or advances when they represent the only practicable method by which a client can enforce his cause of action. [2] If an impoverished person is unable to secure subsistence from some source during disability, he may be deprived of the only effective means by which he can wait out the necessary delays that result from litigation to enforce his cause of action. He may, for reasons of economic necessity and physical need, be forced to settle his claim for an inadequate amount. We do not believe any bar disciplinary rule can or should contemplate depriving poor people from access to the court so as effectively to assert their claim. Cf, Canon 2: A lawyer should assist the legal profession in fulfilling its duty to make legal counsel available. Nor do we see how a lawyer's guarantee of necessary medical treatment for his client, even for a non-litigation related illness, can be regarded as unethical, if the lawyer for reasons of humanity can afford to do so. The advances and guarantees here made are, in our opinion, more akin to the authorized advance of expenses of litigation than to the prohibited advances made with improper motive to buy representation of the client or by way of advertising to attract other clients. We note that the disciplinary rule permitting the advance of expenses of litigation includes certain instances as illustrative, but that it does not clearly exclude other expenses similarly necessary to permit the client his day in court, such as arguably are the present. Additionally, however, if the intent of the disciplinary rule were indeed to prohibit the type of advances and guarantees here made, we have some doubt as to its constitutionality. In Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen v. Virginia, 377 U.S. 1, 84 S.Ct. 1113, 12 L.Ed.2d 89 (1964), the United States Supreme Court struck down a state regulation of the practice of law, holding that such regulation could not unreasonably handicap a claimant's right to petition the courts nor unreasonably inhibit the enforcement of a federal statutory right. For similar reasons, a court-adopted bar disciplinary rule which places an unreasonable burden upon an individual's right to enforce claims allowed him by law might be deemed violative of the access to courts guaranteed to all our people by our state constitution. [3] In our opinion, the better view of those decisions which applied the former canons of ethics (replaced by the present Code of Professional Responsibility) was that the advancement of living expenses did not constitute a violation of professional responsibility, so long as: (a) the advances were not promised as an inducement to obtain professional employment, nor made until after the employment relationship was commenced; (b) the advances were reasonably necessary under the facts; (c) the client remained liable for repayment of all funds, whatever the outcome of the litigation; and (d) the attorney did not encourage public knowledge of this practice as an inducement to secure representation of others. See: Annotation, Attorneys Clients' Expenses, 8 A.L.R.3d 1155 (1966); Strelow, Loans to Clients for Living Expenses, 55 Calif.L.Rev. 1419 (1967). A similar interpretation of the present Code of Professional Responsibility may be more difficult in view of the different wording of the present-day disciplinary rule at issue. Nevertheless, for the reasons earlier stated, we believe that it is justified. At least under the circumstances here shown, the spirit and intent of the canon and the ethical considerations involved is similarly not a violation of professional conduct subject to disciplinary penalty. It is more akin to the permitted advances of expenses of litigation than to the prohibited advances to purchase an interest in a law suit or to induce a client to retain the lawyer. In the present case, the evidence shows that, between June 1970, (when Edwins was retained by Thomas) and June 1972, (when the case was settled), some twenty-four months later, Edwins advanced to Thomas $2,152.87 of living expenses (including car notes, etc.), plus $579.25 for needed medical attention. During this same period of time, Thomas drew $3,472 in maintenance and cure, which was also available for the client's living expenses. At the time Thomas retained Edwins, he was not receiving maintenance and cure. Without charge to Thomas, Edwins secured the payment of maintenance and cure in the amount of $56 weekly. Also, likewise without charge to Thomas, Edwins handled various debt negotiations and other legal advisory and representational services not related to the accident case for which he had been retained. During that same two-year period, a two-person non-farm family with income below $5,422 (a little below $2,716 per year average) fell below the poverty level. [4] The maintenance and cure of $3,472 received by Thomas during this period was insufficient even for the minimum subsistence level of the poorest people in our economy; and Thomas, a high-paid seaman (i. e., an amphibious oil worker) was used to a higher standard of living. (He had, for instance, car notes of $67.50 monthly to meet.) We cannot say that Edwins' advances of $2,152.67 living expenses during this period, or of $579.25 necessary medical treatment, was unreasonable or of a prohibited nature under the standards above set forth. We should also note that Thomas testified that, at the time he retained Edwins, he told him he needed some money, and that Edwins said he would try to help him. (A few days later, when Thomas came to Edwins' office in Baton Rouge, Edwins arranged for a finance company to loan Thomas some money to take care of pressing needs.) Edwins, however, denies that any such inducement was made to obtain his retainer by Thomas. This denial seems to be corroborated by Mrs. Thomas's failure to recollect any such discussion. See Tr. 74-76, hearing of July 17. We therefore find Edwins guilty of no professional misconduct requiring disciplinary action with regard to the minimal advances made by him to Thomas.