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Procedure
for Issuing Advisory Ethics Opinions
By the Arkansas Bar Association
Advisory opinions on
professional ethics will be issued in writing by the
Arkansas Bar Association Standing Committee on Professional
Ethics ( the "Committee" for and in the
name of the Arkansas Bar Association (the "Association").
The opinion will be signed by a Reporter assigned
by the Committee.
Opinions
will be only be issued in response to written requests
from licensed attorneys mailed to the Executive Director
of the Arkansas Bar Association. All such opinions
shall be in writing.
An
Opinions Subcommittee (the "Subcommittee') of
the Professional Ethics Committee is established to
render ethics opinions, and the members will be designated
from time to time by the chair of the Committee. Members
of the Committee should continually assess their participation
in the Committee's deliberations to recognize the
existence of conflicting interests which might impugn
the impartiality of the Committee.
One
or more Reporters (probably law professors in the
two Arkansas Campuses) for the Committee will be designated
by the chair of the Committee. Reporters will be authorized
to employ law students to assist in legal research
if approved in advance by the chair of the Committee.
Expenditures for legal research shall be paid from
charges received by the Committee for opinions or
from funds of the Committee authorized by the House
of Delegates or from such other funds of the Committee
authorized by the House of Delegates or from such
other funds as may be given or granted to the Committee.
Opinions
will be rendered only to licensed attorneys who are
Association members. The following administrative
charge therefore shall be paid in advance: $50.00.
Requests
for opinions shall relate to prospective conduct only
and shall contain a complete statement of all facts
upon which the opinion is requested, and a concise
question of professional ethics. The identity of the
individual, who is the subject of the request, shall
be disclosed to the Committee. The requesting individual
shall include with the request a concise memorandum
setting forth his or her own research and conclusions
concerning the questions and the statement that the
matter is not the subject of pending disciplinary
proceeding. Requests shall not be accepted or referred
for opinion unless accompanied by this memorandum.
Each
opinion will be disseminated for publication in The
Arkansas Lawyer and other media as directed by the
Committee.
The procedure for issuing opinions should be as follows,
if possible:
a. The Executive Director
of the Association will forward opinion requests
to a Reporter immediately upon the receipt of the
request.
b. The
Reporter will prepare a draft and forward the draft
to the Opinions
Subcommittee within ten days from the receipt thereof.
c. Within
seven days thereafter, the Subcommittee members will
return
the draft with an approval thereof, or comments thereon.
d. Within
seven days thereafter, the Reporter will issue the
approved
opinion. In the event the Subcommittee members do
not
agree on the opinion draft, then a Subcommittee meeting
will
be held or a second draft will be circulated and an
opinion published
as soon thereafter as possible.
e.
Subcommittee members may write minority opinions,
however, a
consensus opinion is preferable to one with majority
and minority
viewpoints as a more practical resolution of difficult
issues
about which honest persons may reasonably disagree.
Each
opinion shall contain the following language:
"This
is an opinion only of the Arkansas Bar Association
which is a voluntary association of attorneys licensed
to practice in the State of Arkansas, and reliance
thereon is voluntary and relieves any Association
member from liability for the content thereof. This
opinion is intended to be the Association's best interpretation
of the Model Rules of Professional Conduct as promulgated
by the Supreme Court of Arkansas as that Code applies
to the written facts presented to the Committee.
ARKANSAS BAR ASSOCIATION
By: __________________________
Reporter for Professional
Ethics Committee"
The
Committee shall be limited to expressing its opinion
on the prospective conduct of attorneys, and shall
not issue opinions relating to the conduct of an individual
other than the person requesting the opinion.
The
Model Rules of Professional Conduct and Arkansas Code
of Judicial Conduct in effect in the State of Arkansas
contain the standards to be applied to professional
conduct by the Committee.
The
Committee shall not opine on a question that is pending
before a Court or adjudicative body. The Committee
should refrain from issuing opinions on questions
of law.
Upon
request from an officer of the Arkansas Bar Association
or upon its own initiative, the Committee may examine
subject matter of a general interest the Bar and may
issue and advisory opinion or guideline.
The
files of the Committee, or any part or copy of any
file, or of any member of the Committee relating to
its work, shall be treated as confidential and shall
not be disclosed or made available in any way to any
person other than members of the Committee.
Before
any opinion is cleared for publication in The Arkansas
Lawyer or any other publication, the opinion will
be submitted by the Committee to the lawyer requesting
the opinion. The Reporter will make every effort to
remove any personal references from the opinion so
that the opinion will not be identifiable with any
one attorney or any one locality .
October 1997
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