Legal Question in Criminal Law in Texas

Can our family lawyer son ( who is assistant d.a) also be the persecuting lawyer for one of our immediate family members? We have been clients for over 30years


Asked on 4/09/12, 1:33 pm

2 Answer from Attorneys

M. Elizabeth Foley The Law Office of M. Elizabeth Foley

If I understand your question correctly, yes, that's perfectly ethical unless there's some other problem there. I think that what you're saying is that your family lawyer (let's call him Bob) has a son who's also an attorney (let's call him Chris). Chris is an Assistant DA and is prosecuting some member of your family now, and you're unhappy about it. There is no ethical problem with that situation unless there's something more to the situation, like maybe Chris used to work for his dad's firm and so had access to privileged information from a prior case that would potentially be prejudicial on the current criminal case (maybe things that came out during a divorce that could be used in a current family violence assault case filed by the former client's new wife, for example). Otherwise, it's really not relevant that his dad is your family attorney, assuming that doesn't make for such an uncomfortable situation for him that he'd feel pressured by his dad to do something he shouldn't with the case, in which case you're on the wrong end of that conflict to be complaining about it.

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Answered on 4/09/12, 4:32 pm


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