MCLE Self Study

S California Supreme Court, May 10, This represents the first comprehensive overhaul of California’s ethics rules since California joins the rest of the country by adopting a numbering and organizational system based on the ABA Model Rules, although many of the California Rules continue to be distinct from the Model Rules approach. The California Supreme Court’s action brings the state’s ethics rules more in line with the rules of the other 49 states in their numbering and organization, essentially conforming to those of the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct.

Lawyers owe a duty of professionalism to their clients, opposing parties and of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California (including, of key participants and witnesses before a meeting,hearing, or trial date is set.

The statute of limitations on claims against a lawyer in California is either 1 or 4 years if the claim arises out of a civil matter. It is different for criminal matters. The relevant statute is California Code of Civil Procedure section That section is reproduced below . If the plaintiff is required to establish his or her factual innocence for an underlying criminal charge as an element of his or her claim, the action shall be commenced within two years after the plaintiff achieves postconviction exoneration in the form of a final judicial disposition of the criminal case.

Application of the statute of limitations can be tricky, and if you get it wrong the mistake amounts to a death sentence for the case. The safest way to proceed is to file a legal malpractice case within one year of the date of the negligence or of the date the lawyer last represented you. Those events usually provide the clearest and safeest cutoff dates.

However, even in those instances there can be issues that need to be properly analyzed in order to determine the proper date. For example, just because a lawyer has not executed a substitution of attorney form does not mean that lawyer is still representing you for purposes of the statute. Also, not everything a lawyer does for you will be considered continuing representation.