I am handling a court-appointed case on appeal for a client. The client also hired me on a personal injury case. I have just gotten a nice settlement for the client. Do I have to tell the court-appointed system that the client no longer qualifies for indigent representation?
The question raises a couple of issues. The first issue is that any lawyer who is handling court-appointed or conflict work has to be careful about getting hired or paid by a client. For instance, if a lawyer is representing a client on a court-appointed case and the client wants to hire the lawyer to continue the representation, the lawyer has to decline. Even if the lawyer ends the appointment and immediately notifies the appointing authority, the lawyer is not allowed to take money and represent the person privately. The reason for that is quite obvious. If that was allowed, then unscrupulous lawyers might attempt to badger a client or suggest that a client hire them to get a better result or a better effort. Clearly, that would be unacceptable.
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