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Would it be considered conflict of interest if a sibling of the children involved in a custody case worked for the lawyer representing one of the parties in the case?
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Does the sibling have access to unique information that would not otherwise be available to the party employing the lawyer? For example does parent A confide in the sibling, and then parent B employ the lawyer? This would be cause to complain.
If the sibling does not have such information, then any complaint would really just be for the sake of stirring trouble, would it not? It is hard to say how the Law Scociety would interpret this. It's usually best to just steer clear of any associations, but for example in a small community with only 2 family law specialists, is it worth the fight? -
In answer to your first question - could be - it certainly impairs one's ability to have family relationships when you know anything you say could be repeated.
Also if the party retaining this lawyer has used the relationship to intimidate, denigrate, etc.
What if the lawyer in question has had the sibling working on that specific file?
And this is in a large metropolitan area? In my opinion, for a family law lawyer, this is unethical at best and not in the best interests of the children (who are quite young).Comment
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