Legal Question in Legal Ethics in Connecticut

attorney responsibilities to advesarial party
Dispute between landlord & tenant. Landlord hires attny. Attny notifies tenant that he is representing landlord & offers tenant option to terminate lease early. Tenant accepts. Tenant provides attny vacate date & forwarding address for mailing of security deposit.

Is attny responsible for forwarding that information to his client, the landlord?

If attny no longer represents landlord at the time tenant provided move-out information, does attny have responsibility to notify tenant of such a situation?

If state law requires that tenant provide in writing to landlord forwarding address, can tenant treat landlord and attny as same person & be within requirements of law by notifying only attny of forwarding address?

Asked on 1/26/04, 7:41 pm

2 Answers from Attorneys

Bonnie Lee MacDonald Law Office of Bonnie Lee MacDonald

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Re: attorney responsibilities to advesarial party

an attorney has certain ethical obligations under the rules of professional conduct. the attorney has no obligation to you, however, even if an attorney has been unfairly terminated, a lawyer must take all steps to mitigate the consequences of termination to client.

an attorney also has an obligation to notify a client or a third person upon receiving fund or property of that person. If you sent a letter to the landlord in care if of the attorney, he should have notified his client that he received the letter.

if you communicated orally with the attorney, the attorney certainly had a duty to inform you that your landlord was no longer his client. similarly, if you provided written notice, the attorney should have returned your letter and informed you that he no longer represented your landlord.

Answered on 1/27/04, 10:38 am

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