Paralegal Susan arrives at her office at 9:00 A. M. Every morning when arriving in the office, Susan normally checks her personal calendar for the day's court filing deadlines. Today, however, the secretary is out sick and Susan must answer the phones and serve as the word processor for her. Susan forgets to check her calendar until the end of the day. As a result, she fails to file an important document with the court on behalf of her supervising attorney. Which ethical rule has been breached?

Question

Social Studies

Allisson Wilcox

29 December, 14:22

Paralegal Susan arrives at her office at 9:00 A. M. Every morning when arriving in the office, Susan normally checks her personal calendar for the day's court filing deadlines. Today, however, the secretary is out sick and Susan must answer the phones and serve as the word processor for her. Susan forgets to check her calendar until the end of the day. As a result, she fails to file an important document with the court on behalf of her supervising attorney. Which ethical rule has been breached?

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Answers (1)

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Tess French · Answer 1

Answer: The duty of competence and the duty of diligence.

Explanation:

These are two rules that guide and control how lawyers should handle the cases. These rules prevent lawyers from being negligent when handling a case and encourage them to act with a maximum diligence and must always react immediate whilst representing their clients.

When it comes to competence, lawyers must hold a constant professional level of care when dealing with clients issues. Failing to maintain a duty of competence can be any of the following: failing to contact with other professional attorneys when needed, jeopardising the client's interest, failing to take care of basic needs of the clients

Susan failed to abide by these two because now she hasn't filed the important document of the client, she didn't react immediately to this client need and was negligent and she didn't act professional at all.