Opinion ID: 836026
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: ORS 9.460(2) and ORS 9.527(4)

Text: In addition to the foregoing disciplinary rule violations, the Bar also charged the accused with violating ORS 9.460(2) and ORS 9.527(4), based upon his false statements. ORS 9.460(2) provides that a lawyer shall [e]mploy, for the purpose of maintaining the causes confided to the [lawyer], such means only as are consistent with truth, and never seek to mislead the court or jury by any artifice or false statement of law or fact[.] ORS 9.527(4) provides, in part, that [t]he Supreme Court may disbar, suspend or reprimand a member of the bar whenever    it appears to the court that    [t]he member is guilty of willful deceit   . In effect, ORS 9.460(2) and ORS 9.527(4) operate to prohibit lawyers from making false statements, similar to DR 1-102(A)(3) and DR 7-102(A)(5). Recently, this court observed that a determination that the same conduct has given rise to violations of both a disciplinary rule and an applicable statute generally has not served to enhance the sanction that this court has imposed for the violation or violations of the Code of Professional Responsibility. In re Kimmell, 332 Or. 480, 487, 31 P.3d 414 (2001). Because the Bar bases its statutory allegations upon the same conduct that we already have concluded violated DR 1-102(A)(3) and DR 7-102(A)(5), and a decision respecting the accused's conduct as to those statutes would not alter the nature or extent of any sanction in this proceeding, we decline to address whether the accused's conduct violated either ORS 9.460(2) or ORS 9.527(4).