Is it best to cooperate with your prosecutors? Suppose you feel that your documents may possibly result in the declaring of criminal charges with you? What if the investigator asks you questions whose truthful answers is an admission of offense. Can they make you testify? What can they do in the event you don't? What about this Fifth Amendment?
Usually there are some facts you should fully understand. The Office of Lawyer Ethics (OAE), within the state Supreme Court, strengthens attorney discipline in New jersey. It investigates all grievances against all attorneys. In the event the OAE decides that your case requires immediate attention, or if you happen also being a defendant in criminal proceedings, the ethics case may very well be handled directly by that OAE in Trenton. In such a case, the Investigator who contacted you may be a paid professional. From time to time, the case originates "automatically" when a legal professional Trust Account check bounces. Those cases, too, are generally handled using Trenton. It is seldom clear from the first letter or phone call.
Most issues, however, are investigated by the District Ethics Committees, (DEC), whose investigators are attorney volunteers in districts in the state. Following its examination, the DEC will determine whether discipline may very well be required. If so, a formal Complaint will be filed. Other times, the grievance is dismissed. Sometimes, in minor cases, there's a chance you're offered diversion, a non-disciplinary, conditional resolution in the case. In all instances, you ultimately have the right to a full evidentiary hearing over the charges.
It is important that you know that OAE has the power to summarily suspend your license merely for your refusal to respond to answer the ten-day letter. Typically, you will be given several extra days to conform, if you need these, but your additional and also continued failure to cooperate along with the investigation (or quite possibly the mere appearance of such) can result in additional measures against you, including, in appropriate circumstances, summary disbarment. While your Ethics Committee cannot get you in jail, it may do something that this criminal courts cannot: it may penalize you for "pleading this fifth". Unlike the trier of fact within a criminal case, an Ethics Committee Hearing Panel and the rest of the OAE, and even this Supreme Court, may draw a poor inference from your non-cooperation or your failure to appear or produce evidence or out of your refusal to testify.
That is because there's no Constitutional, or even statutory right, to practice law - there only a license, not unlike some sort of driver's license. Where a trade or profession has to be regulated by the condition, and the practitioners ought to be licensed, the state may well impose conditions and restrictions on that license. Accused violators do not get a jury, and the typical of proof is "clear together with convincing, " not your Constitution's "no reasonable doubt" usual.
Of training course, if your ethics case also involves (and also may involve) felony charges against you or even your client or someone in your firm, consult immediately with an attorney who has correct expertise. The issues are generally complex, the stakes are high, and there is no standard approach.
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