Divorce Law Journal

New Jersey Magistrate Rules Against Ghostwriting Lawyer

'Ghostwriting' Lawyer Effaced From ERISA Case on Ethics Grounds by Charles Toutant, New Jersey Law Journal, March 21, 2007 is online here at Law.com.

Ghostwriting pleadings for a pro se litigant violates a lawyer's ethical duty of candor to the court and may amount to a violation of federal court rules, a U.S. magistrate judge holds in a case of first impression in New Jersey.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Tonianne Bongiovanni barred a lawyer from informally assisting a widow in her ERISA suit against Merck & Co.'s pension program, finding "undisclosed ghostwriting is not permissible under the current form of the [Rules of Professional Conduct] in New Jersey."

The opinion, in Delso v. Trustees for the Retirement Plan for the Hourly Employees of Merck & Co. Inc., 04-3009, offers guidance for attorneys who offer "unbundled" services, by which a lawyer performs succinct legal tasks but does not provide traditional full-service representation.

Bongiovanni said the practice -- which proponents say increases access to justice for the poor and promotes efficiency in pro se matters -- has created an ethical conundrum, since the Rules of Professional Conduct

Bar Represents Man Who Went Online to Arrange Divorce

Bar Represents Man Who Went Online to Arrange Divorce
Posted on January 15, 2007 by Grant Griffiths at Kansas Family Law Blog.

The North Carolina State Bar is taking up the case of a man who went online to try to arrange his divorce, only to find court officials wouldn't accept the documents he downloaded from the Web site.
Joe Bruno got the documents from Law Online Incorporated and took them to the Gaston County Courthouse. Officials there told him that the documents weren't legal and that they wouldn't take them.
The state Bar wants to stop Law Online from doing business in the state, and accuses the company of offering legal advice without being licensed as attorneys in the state. The bar filed a lawsuit in Wake County.
The company says it did little more than offer people a way to handle a divorce on their own, and shouldn't be singled out by the Bar.
Bruno eventually got his divorce by hiring an attorney and paying half the 600 dollars Law Online asked for.

Grant does a very nice job with his blog. Sometimes I assume everybody already knows about the great family law blogs out there, so I have posted stories from them less frequently of late. Since I know I have many new readers, I will link to these other good blogs for awhile, so the newcomers can see the fine things going on online in family law.