Opinion ID: 1462263
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Respondent's Refusal to File a Bond Review Motion.

Text: We agree with the Hearing Committee's conclusion that respondent violated DR 7-101(A)(1) when he refused to file a bond review motion on behalf of his client in the face of her direct instruction to do so. A lawyer who refuses to file a motion as fundamentally important as a bond review motion after being instructed to do so by his client is in violation of the disciplinary rules except in certain unusual circumstances. The factors involved in a judge's decision to reduce the severity of a criminal defendant's conditions of release are so subjective that no lawyer can be sure that such a motion would be frivolous except in certain clearcut cases. To be sure, if the client is subject to a five-day hold, is also arrested on an escape warrant from another sentence, has been revoked on his probation or parole, or otherwise has no possible chance of being released, then an attorney might be justified in refusing to file a bond review motion despite his client's request. Such a motion might be frivolous, and the lawyer would have an obligation not to burden the court with a pointless motion. On the other hand, where the client can theoretically be released, then a bond review motion should always be filed when requested by the client. [4] It is simply impossible to predict with absolute certainty how a court will react to such a motion. Sometimes even the mere passage of time will convince a judge to reduce the severity of the conditions of release. Thus, the motion should always be filed when the client insists upon exercising his absolute statutory right to such a motion unless the lawyer determines that the motion would be wholly frivolous. D.C.Code § 23-1321(d). This is not to say that a lawyer could not advise his client that such a motion was so unlikely to succeed as not to be worthwhile. A lawyer would certainly be justified in urging his opinion on the client and in telling his client that the lawyer's time and efforts would be better spent on other aspects of the case. However, if the client, having heard his lawyer's opinion and having understood it, rejects it and insists upon a bond review motion being filed, the lawyer is obligated to pursue his client's lawful objectives through reasonably available means permitted by law. There is no question that a bond review motion is a reasonably available means permitted by law. The respondent in this case flatly refused to file such a motion despite repeated requests by his client. It was his judgment that such a motion would be worthless and that the client would be better off in jail. Our point is that an attorney is not entitled to substitute his own judgment for that of the client in a matter as fundamental as whether or not to ask that the client be released pending trial. The case belongs to the client, not to the lawyer. The lawyer is bound to exercise his professional judgment in advising the client. But if the lawyer's advice on such a fundamental matter is rejected, the lawyer has only two choices: either pursue the lawful objective of the client or withdraw. What the lawyer may not do is simply substitute his own judgment for that of the client and leave an incarcerated indigent client isolated in the District of Columbia Jail with no one to turn to, his lawyer having simply overruled him. When a lawyer represents an indigent criminal client, particularly one who is incarcerated, his duty is particularly compelling. For an indigent locked up in the District of Columbia Jail, the world is a hostile place indeed. Communications with one's family and friends and neighbors may be difficult or virtually impossible. The incarcerated indigent typically has few or no resources with which to deal with the many problems that confront him. The one person in the complex criminal justice system who is supposed to be unreservedly devoted to the interests of such a client is the appointed lawyer. When that lawyer ignores the views of the client, the client is left completely without assistance in a world that is then unrelievedly hostile.