I have wasted two stamps this morning. Why, you may ask? Well, because I'm having a moral dilemma of the highest order for a lawyer. I am the guardian of a gentleman who recently went to a nursing home. The nursing home will become the rep payee of his Social Security check. So I closed his checking account. My dilemma is: how do I get him the $3.90 from closing the account.
In truth, this is a rather minor dilemma. However, it is a dilemma. As an attorney, I am prohibited from co-mingling client funds with my own. One thought I had was just writing him a check out of my business checking account. Then, on second thought, I thought of putting the $3.90 into my IOLTA (Massachusetts Client Trust Account) and writing the check from that account. Finally, I thought of just sacrificing the $0.10 and sending him four ones. Which does not leave a paper trail.
There are all kinds of things that law school does not teach you. The ethics classes are so cut and dry, and when taking them, you never in a million years think that there will ever be a sketchy ethical situation. In reality, they come up all the time. When I left my former firms, I had no idea of all of the clients or opposing parties my firms had contact with. So, I am required to question my potential clients intensively about their finances and previous legal interactions so that I don't get involved in a case where I am conflicted. Finally, the prohibition on co mingling client funds seems straight forward until you have a situation where you receive $3.90 in cash as the remainder of an account.
Lesson learned: just ask for a cashier's check next time, even if it is only for $3.90.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment