Want legal ethics advice? There’s an app for that
The Journal News - Completely Legal Blog by Steve Lieberman - January 13, 2012
The New York State Bar Association has introduced a mobile app that gives judges, lawyers, law students and the public at large instant answers to legal ethics questions on their smartphones. The app contains more than 900 searchable ethics opinions, dating back to 1964, on legal issues in categories from acceptance of employment to zoning board issues. Decisions can be searched by keyword, category or opinion number. “Ethics questions can arise in many different contexts. The NYSBA Mobile Ethics App will allow judges, lawyers and others to access the opinions of the Association’s Professional Ethics Committee on the spot from the convenience of their mobile devices,” Bar President Vincent E. Doyle III said in a statement. “The State Bar is pleased to provide this service to its members and the legal community.” This is the Bar’s latest foray into making the law accessible online. Last year, it launched the eLAP website, a secure portal for accessing lawyer assistance information and services. The Bar also improved its website’s search engine and offered its members discount subscriptions to Clio, a cloud-based practice management system designed for solo practitioners and small law firms. The Ethics app is available on Apple’s App Store, the Android Market, BlackBerry’s App World and on the state bar website at www.nysba.org/ethicsapp. The 77,000-member New York State Bar Association, founded in 1876, is the largest voluntary bar association in the nation.
How much did this cost the State?
ReplyDeleteYou know N.Y state that is crying for money.
They have the laws in books. They ignore them when it is written on paper. Whe really believes that hey will follow them if they are in app form or any other form.
The problem is that now one makes them follow the law. Because no one holds them accountable.
What a joke. The lawyers, in and out of black robes, need an app to enable them to be ethical? Was it an adaption of the Vulture App, where the word 'vulture' was simply replaced with 'lawyer'; the word 'carcass' replaced with 'client' and 'vulture chief' replaced with 'judge'?
ReplyDeletedoes the app also state in eula or in the fine print disclaimer that "the opinions expressed in this app are intended for public consumption only, it does not reflect the true opinions of the lawyers that make up the bar, and that anyone attempting to enforce any sanctions for violating the opinions and ethical opinions found in the app will be ignored at the highest possible level"...
ReplyDeletethis is tantamount to a sadistic cruel joke on the public...
while it's good to know the law and a lawyer's responsibility to the rules of ethical behavior, the fact is, as i've seen from experience, these rules had very little to do with the conduct of all of the attorneys involved in my legal issues... and the disciplinary committee seemed uninterested in doing anything about it...
they'll lie, commit perjury, offer false statements, convert funds, obstruct justice... all with the apparent sanctions of the bar...
a bar which is made up of those very same persons for whom the apparent authority has become a license to break the law and violate the rights of those for whom they are mandated to serve...
to promote an app that infers that there is a standard of behavior to which the public can use as a basis for redress is the height of hypocrisy, and an example of an attempt to delude a gullible public...
sorry... but i'll have to pass on that app... i'd rather burn my online minutes playing a game...
--Michael A. Hense
Searching For Rule Of Law In America
I wonder if Bar Pres. atty Doyle used his father's misconduct to fashion the ethics app.
ReplyDeleteYou would have to know that his father, as Admin Judge in the 8th dist...often drank heavy and drove, was caught stealing batteries and given a shorter ACD then the public's 6 months typical, and only promoted those who drank with him at DuBois bar..the fun time bar of the entire 8th dist..where everyone knows your game!