This situation between Ari and Raymond is surely a common occurrence in the real world of practicing law because it represents the issue of unreasonable fees combined with other issues of a paralegal practicing law with limited supervision from a supervising attorney, (Thompson, K., 2008). What is important to note about this situation is that it shows an attorney and its law firm taking advantage of a client’s emotions and possibly providing him inadequate representation for his upcoming matter. Thus, the most pertinent issue in Ari’s case that should be assessed is whether he is too emotional to be trusted to make pertinent decisions regarding his representation and whether the law firm he hired has a conflict in considering keeping him as a client.
In considering what Raymond should do, his reaction should be two-fold, Raymond as a paralegal is likely someone who could be considering going to law school or is already in law school. The reason that this information is relevant is that Raymond, if he allows that time to be billed will be violating the Model Rules because he will be billing Ari for an excessive and unreasonable fee as prescribed by Model Rule 1.5, (Rule 1.5: Fees, 2016). Under Rule 1.5 of the Model Rules, any lawyer shall not charge an unreasonable fee for an unreasonable amount of expenses, (Rule 1.5: Fees, 2016). The reason that this is relevant here is that if Raymond does want to go to law school, he is likely going to have to follow these rules should he want to practice law one day. That being said, a violation now, would be very detrimental to Raymond should he want to apply for the Bar later on. Additionally, one would need to make an inquiry into the facts about whether Raymond had someone supervising him in the law firm. This is crucial because the law firm could be subject to liabilities here is Raymond had too much responsibility on this case if he did not have his law license as of yet.
Another aspect that could affect Raymond’s future to practice law is if he watched as the firm improperly represented Ari and said nothing about the possibility of a conflict of interest regarding the Ari’s emotional state. The duty here is two fold and once again, it depends on the fact as to whether the firm adequately was supervising their paralegal and whether both the paralegal and the firm did not act upon Ari’s clear lack of emotional capacity. Where the conflict is going to become pertinent is if the client can be held to not be in the right mind to make sound judgments. This threshold can be met in a variety of ways. One being the extreme where the client is unable to function without a legal guardian. In the case at hand, Ari is likely not that incapacitated to make a legal decision; however, he is arguably too emotional to make sound decisions regarding his case. There could be a temptation for the firm to make a case that is prolonged and frivolous based on Ari’s instructions that would not be in the best interest of Ari’s case. This could create an enormous conflict of interest for the firm because they would be bringing a frivolous claim and be charging in excess when the legal action that the client wanted may have not been necessary or in the ultimate outcome of the case’s best interest.
Raymond has several conflicts in this case with Ari’s representation. Pertaining to Alternate Dispute Resolution techniques, Raymond’s firm ultimately should not take Ari’s case in order to avoid potential liability from the ABA and a potential malpractice claim later on. If Ari is able to calm down and be more reasonable, then Raymond’s firm can and should continue with the representation. As far as Raymond’s role, Raymond should seek advice about the billing regardless of whether the firm decides to keep Ari as a client because one could make the argument that the fees are unreasonable given Ari’s state of mind. Since Raymond is only a paralegal, his law firm has to be very careful and diligent in dealing with Ari due to the conflicts that do exist pertaining to Ari’s case. That being said, the law firm should think twice about keeping Ari as a client in the long term due to liability purposes.
References
Rule 1.5: Fees. (2016). American Bar Association. Retrieved from: http://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/administrative/professional_responsibility/mrpc_1_5.authcheckdam.pdf
Thompson, K. (2008). Let’s Be Reasonable. ABA Journal. Retrieved from: http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/article/lets_be_reasonable/
