Legal Question in Legal Ethics in Florida

I have a public defender for a dependancy case that I am going through right now and I sent him an email and asked him a question about my case reguarding my fiance. Dcf has ordered no contact with him and my daughter and I was asking my attorney about having that changed and he emailed me back with a lot of terrible comments about my fiance, calling him a creep and a con man and refering to him as sick and bizare, and he has never met or or even spoken to my fiance and my fiance and I want to know if that could be considered slander or discrimination by him and the DCF because of the fact that he is incarcerated. We feel that the attorney and the DCF are acting with prejudice toward him because he is incarcerated, because they have no ther legal basis to judge their comments on. We want to know if there is anything that can be done about this. My attorney is refusing to ask what I have asked of him because of how he feels about my fiance and what he personally thinks, and he expressed his personal feelings and thoughts in the email, and I felt that it was very unprofessional and I do not see where it is legal for him to do so and to try to persuade me on a personal basis. He said that I should forget about my fiance and find a decent guy, that I am an intelligent, attractive, and delightful young lady and I can do better than that "creep". Is this common procedure for an attorney to make such comments to a client?

Asked on 9/04/09, 6:11 pm

2 Answers from Attorneys

Brent Rose The Orsini & Rose Law Firm

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Did you say your "fiance and [you] want to know"? Does that mean you violated the judge's order and had contact with your fiance?

Have you thought about this: maybe your fiance is a creep. Maybe you ought to dump him. Maybe your fiance should be incarcerated. Maybe you should worry about your child first, your fiance second--or, at least, I'll bet that's what your lawyer is thinking. I assume your fiance's in jail because of something he did to your child. Did he molest your child? There's no rule against a lawyer expressing his or her personal feelings in a case. In fact, it's often called for.

At any rate, if you don't like the lawyer the judge gave you, you can go hire your own lawyer, who may see things from your perspective. It's possible, of course, that this lawyer is wrong, but what are the odds that this lawyer for no reason whatsoever has just decided that you are better off without this guy? Because he's in jail? C'mon. Go find another lawyer if you want, but in the meantime, maybe you should consider putting your daughter first and this potential "creep" last.

Answered on 9/04/09, 7:40 pm

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