Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in New Jersey

Assume that your state bar association conducts random audits of law firms' client trust accounts. Your supervising attorney has informed you that your firm's client trust fund accounts for the last three years are being audited. You have been asked to assist the firm's bookkeeper in preparing for the audit. During this process you review bank deposit receipts and discover that numerous deposits are not identified in any manner and that you cannot match these deposits to specific clients. You find out that Tom, a relatively new paralegal, has been working on real estate transactions with another attorney in the firm. Tom's procedure for handling client trust fund deposits for the last four months has consisted of removing a bank deposit slip relative to a client matter from the deposit book and placing it in the client file. How should this situation be handled?


Asked on 11/28/11, 4:40 pm

2 Answers from Attorneys

John Corbett Corbett Law Firm LLC

You should first remember that everything in your office must be done ethically within the bounds of the law and that it is unethical to present someone else's work as your answer to a homework assignment. Get caught and you won't get a job.

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Answered on 11/28/11, 5:22 pm
Michael Duffy Duffy Law, LLC

The answer is you're unethical because rather than answering a simple question yourself you try to cheat by asking lawyers online on a free attorney advice board. Any school that uses The Essentials of Real Estate Law by Lynn T. Slossberg should be alerted.

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Answered on 11/28/11, 6:02 pm


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