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Lawyers suing lawyers because they just want to be lawyers…
Lawyers don’t like it when laws tell them what they can or can’t do. So in Connecticut, a lawsuit has been filed on behalf of thousands of bankruptcy attorneys by the Connecticut Bar Association and the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy. Their panties are in a bunch over several parts of the relatively new bankruptcy law, most particularly, a part which requires lawyers to give certain specific advice to clients, including advice that they should not get into any more debt if they are at risk of going into bankruptcy. Attorneys are especially tweaked by this because they say it interferes with attorney-client relationship, hampering their ability to give clients legal advice that best fits the client’s needs. For example, as one attorney said, “Someone could be down and out but have access to a student loan to go to school for retraining…[w]e couldn’t advise that client to take that student loan.”
Actually, that seems pretty reasonable. So does another attorney’s argument that he would be prevented from suggesting to certain clients that they borrow money against an equity line of credit or a 401(k) retirement plan, even if that makes sense in their particular situation.
And faced with a reasonable argument, the Department of Justice responded with basic silence, saying it was looking into the lawsuit. Ladies and gentlement - your federal government, hard at work, not answering your questions.
