Should you and I agree to form an attorney-client rela­tion­ship, the fol­low­ing Statement of Client’s Rights will apply. Please refer to the pro­vi­sions on my Welcome page regard­ing the for­ma­tion of an attorney-client rela­tion­ship. If you and I have not signed a retainer agree­ment, no attorney-client rela­tion­ship exists between us.

Statement of Client’s Rights

(As adopted by the Administrative Board of the Courts)

1. You are enti­tled to be treated with cour­tesy and con­sid­er­a­tion at all times by your lawyer and the other lawyers and per­son­nel in your lawyer’s office.

2. You are enti­tled to an attor­ney capa­ble of han­dling your legal mat­ter com­pe­tently and dili­gently, in accor­dance with the high­est stan­dards of the pro­fes­sion. If you are not sat­is­fied with how your mat­ter is being han­dled, you have the right to with­draw from the attorney-client rela­tion­ship at any time (court approval may be required in some mat­ters and your attor­ney may have a claim against you for the value of ser­vices ren­dered to you up to the point of discharge).

3. You are enti­tled to your lawyer’ s inde­pen­dent pro­fes­sional judg­ment and undi­vided loy­alty uncom­pro­mised by con­flicts of interest.

4. You are enti­tled to be charged a rea­son­able fee and to have your lawyer explain at the out­set how the fee will be com­puted and the man­ner and fre­quency of billing. You are enti­tled to request and receive a writ­ten item­ized bill from your attor­ney at rea­son­able inter­vals. You may refuse to enter into any fee arrange­ment that you find unsat­is­fac­tory. In the event of a fee dis­pute, you may have the right to seek arbi­tra­tion; your attor­ney will pro­vide you with the nec­es­sary infor­ma­tion regard­ing arbi­tra­tion in the event of a fee dis­pute, or upon your request.

5. You are enti­tled to have your ques­tions and con­cerns addressed in a prompt man­ner and to have your tele­phone calls returned promptly.

6. You are enti­tled to be kept informed as to the sta­tus of your mat­ter and to request and receive copies of papers. You are enti­tled to suf­fi­cient infor­ma­tion to allow you to par­tic­i­pate mean­ing­fully in the devel­op­ment of your matter.

7. You are enti­tled to have your legit­i­mate objec­tives respected by your attor­ney, includ­ing whether or not to set­tle your mat­ter (court approval of a set­tle­ment is required in some matters).

8. You have the right to pri­vacy in your deal­ings with your lawyer and to have your secrets and con­fi­dences pre­served to the extent per­mit­ted by law.

9. You are enti­tled to have your attor­ney con­duct him­self or her­self eth­i­cally in accor­dance with the Code of Professional Responsibility.

10. You may not be refused rep­re­sen­ta­tion on the basis of race, creed, color, age, reli­gion, sex, sex­ual ori­en­ta­tion, national ori­gin or disability.