A lawyer’s obligations of communication and competence aren’t diminished when a client and a lawyer don’t share a common language or owing to a client’s non-cognitive physical condition, according to a recently issued opinion from the American Bar Association.
Formal Opinion 500 states that, in both situations, the duties of communication under Model Rule 1.4 and competence under Model Rule 1.1 still stand. Moreover, a lawyer may be obligated to ensure those duties are discharged through an impartial interpreter or translator and assistive or language-translation technologies, when necessary.
Importantly, a lawyer must ensure “the client understands the legal significance of
Continue Reading ABA Releases Guidance on Language Access in the Client-Lawyer Relationship
