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| | | Friday, May 09, 2008 | | |||||||
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SEARCH WSBA ETHICS OPINIONS |
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| The Washington State Bar Association has a major responsibility for the ethical rules that form the standards of law practice in the state. The Rules of Professional Conduct (RPC), as approved and adopted by the Washington State Supreme Court, codify a strict, self-imposed standard. The Association also assists members in interpreting their ethical obligations by issuing opinions about specific issues from time to time. Many are the result of study and analysis in response to requests from individual WSBA members. | ||
| These opinions are of two types: Formal Ethics Opinions are issued by the RPC Committee (or one of its predecessor committees) and have been formally approved and adopted by the Association's Board of Governors. Formal opinions generally address matters of wide concern and interest. Of the approximately 200 Formal Opinions adopted by the Board of Governors, about 120 have been withdrawn. To browse the Formal Opinions by title, click here. Informal Ethics Opinions are not individually approved by the Board and do not reflect any official position of the Association. Informal opinions reflect only the opinion of the Rules of Professional Conduct Committee. Informal opinions are generally concerned with less sweeping topics. Informal Opinions have been prepared for individual inquirers and contain confidential information; they have been edited for posting to the internet database. For more information see also About WSBA Ethics Opinions To search for an ethics opinion, enter the number of the opinion in the "Opinion Number" box or you may search by typing a word or phrase in the "Subject" or "Opinion" boxes. You may also search by RPC number in the "RPC or other authority" box. You may select Formal or Informal from the drop-down menu in “Type” to limit the search to either Formal or Informal Opinions or select All to retrieve both types of opinions. Generally, the most comprehensive results are obtained by searching the “Opinion” box. Example: Entering a word in the “Opinions” search field will retrieve opinions in which that word is used in the text of the opinion. Entering only fee will retrieve both fee and fees, as the end of a word is a wildcard. Entering multiple words separated by commas will retrieve opinions in which each word appears anywhere in the opinion, regardless of word order. In other words, the comma is the equivalent of an "AND," not an "OR." Thus, entering advertising, letterhead will retrieve opinions in which the word advertising AND the word letterhead are each used somewhere in the opinion. Entering a phrase without commas will retrieve the exact phrase. Entering conflict of interest will retrieve opinions in which the whole phrase is used. To include instances where conflicts of interest occurs, include “%” for a wildcard in the middle of the phrase, as in conflict% of interest. Quotation marks around the phrase are not necessary. Click on "Help" above for more information. |
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