The state's 19,000 lawyers and their clients will be affected beginning March 1, 2003, by substantially revised ethics rules for attorneys adopted Tuesday by the Tennessee Supreme Court to replace the current 32-year-old code of conduct. The court's order overhauling the rules was prompted by a Tennessee Bar Association petition filed two years ago. The attorney organization, which had studied and debated the issue for several years, asked the court to adopt a comprehensive revision of a Supreme Court rule governing lawyer ethics.
The court invited comments from judges, lawyers and the public concerning rules proposed by the TBA and considered the hundreds of comments and suggestions it received. Justices also heard oral arguments in June on a revision of the TBA proposal. "... The court agrees that, due to the emergence of new areas of practice, along with changes in various procedural and substantive rules of law, the Code of Professional Responsibility is no longer adequate to regulate the conduct of lawyers or the relationship between lawyers and clients," justices said in the order.
The order deletes the existing Code of Professional Responsibility contained in Supreme Court Rule 8 and adopts instead the new Tennessee Rules of Professional Conduct. Changes include an expansion of a lawyer's duty to keep client information confidential and a revision of the rules regarding conflicts of interest.
The court also tightened the rules governing contingency fees - the percentages of money collected for clients that lawyers may take in some cases, such as accidents. Under the current rule, the fees cannot be "clearly excessive" or illegal and cannot be charged in criminal cases. The new rule requires detailed written agreements with clients in advance as well as detailed settlement sheets after a case is concluded. It also prohibits contingency fees in domestic relations matters, such as divorce and custody cases, unless a lawyer is attempting to collect an arrearage owed to the client.
While the court used the TBA proposal as a guide, it did not accept all of the organization's suggested changes. The Bar sought to do away with an existing requirement that disclaimers must appear in lawyers' advertisements stating they are not certified in certain areas of the law.
The court also continued the current practice of not allowing lawyers to secretly record conversations in civil - or non-criminal - cases. In approving the new rules, the court said its action "stands as a testament" to the contribution the TBA has made to the practice of law in Tennessee.
The order also thanks other groups and individuals involved in the process, including the state Board of Professional Responsibility, which disciplines lawyers, the Tennessee Attorney General, the District Attorneys General Conference and the United States Attorneys from the state's three districts. Also singled out in the order was Chattanooga attorney T. Maxfield Bahner.