Ever have a vexing legal question fraught with disciplinary implications and been stumped on the way to resolve it.  Of course you have.  We all have.  Above all, the legal practitioner wants to avoid allegations of ethical misconduct.  What does one do?  Where does one go?

For example:  Suppose your client informs you during a consultation regarding an automobile accident that he blacked out at the wheel due to a medical condition that he had just been diagnosed with.  The client further informs you that he intends to continue driving because he must in order to maintain his employment.  The matter for which you are representing him has nothing to do with his employment.  Yet, this client intends to continue driving, placing innocent and unsuspecting individuals on the roadway at risk of accident or death, not to mention the risk to your client.  However, your client has told you this in the secrecy of a conversation between you and him during a legal consultation.  What do you do?  You certainly want to alert the authorities and possibly your client's employer about your client's condition and encourage your client to do so.  But your client is very near to retirement and fears that such a revelation will result in his termination from employment, thereby losing all of his pension and benefits.  What should you do.

The answer to these types of questions are very rarely straightforward or easy.  The right approach to take is unclear.  Your ethical duty to your client appears to be at adds with your moral obligation to your fellow man.  And then there is the fear of disciplinary action if you get it wrong. 

In these kinds of cases, oftentimes, the best approach is to seek your own legal advice.  Obtain the services of a legal practitioner in ethics.  You can obtain a written legal opinion informing you of your legal obligations to your client and, possibly, resolve that pesky moral problem of the duty that you owe to the public.  At the very least, you will have done your duty to inform yourself of your ethical obligations.  Such steps do much to ward off disciplinary prosecutions.  Not only will you assure yourself of solid ethical advice, but you will be able to prove that you sought legal advice and followed it in the matter.

As an ethics practitioner for over 7 years, Dianna is well equiped to assist you in sorting out thorny issues like the one presented above.  She can provide you with the ethics opinion that you need and desire to protect you from any allegation that you acted improperly in such matters.  It is true that she cannot guaranty that an ethics investigation will not ensue since anyone can file a grievance for any reason.  However, if that does occur, you can rest in the assurance that you did your legal duty by obtaining an ethics opinion by a practitioner in the ethics field to demonstrate to a disciplinary authority that you fulfilled your ethical obligation.  Protect yourself.  Seek legal help.