Just last month, we wrote about a North Carolina draft proposal that would ease the way via its ethics rules for Avvo and other on-line legal services to operate there.  Now, after a joint opinion from three New Jersey Supreme Court committees, the Garden State has turned thumbs down on such law platforms, citing issues 

One dollar billsLitigation funding is in the news again, with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce spearheading a request to amend the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure to require initial disclosure of all third-party agreements for compensation that are “contingent on, and sourced from, any proceeds of the civil action, by settlement, judgment or otherwise.”

The Chamber joined

Stand out from the crowd concept femaleAvvo Legal Services has been meeting with North Carolina bar regulators, resulting in a draft proposal that would amend several legal ethics rules and make it easier for Avvo to operate in the Tar Heel State, according to Prof. Alberto Bernabe, a Chicago law professor who has seen some of the relevant documents, and

Money SliceFollowing an $8 million settlement in a personal injury suit, the New York Court of Appeals held that a fee-sharing agreement between two lawyers was enforceable, even though it violated ethics requirements.  The court said that counsel’s failure to inform her client and obtain consent to the fee split was a “serious ethical violation,” but

On January 26, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California became the first to mandate disclosure of litigation funding that parties in class actions receive from outside sources, under a revision to the court’s standing order applicable to all cases. The rule provides that “in any proposed class, collective or representative action, the required disclosure includes any person or entity that is funding the prosecution of any claim or counterclaim.”
Continue Reading For the first time, court requires “litigation funders” to be disclosed — but only in class actions

In today’s soft legal services market, some aspiring members of the profession feel pressure to work for free, but the fairness of such arrangements in general has come under scrutiny. In a twist, the New York State Bar Association earlier this month said that law firms could bill clients for services provided by unpaid legal interns, as long as the amount is not excessive, and the internship program complies with applicable law.
Continue Reading Unpaid legal interns’ work can be billed to clients as fees or costs, NY state bar ass’n says

Green Cash key on a computer keyboard with clipping pathBartering for goods and services seems old-fashioned, even primitive — after all, that’s why money was invented, right?  But bartering might be viewed as a component of today’s “sharing economy,” which involves more-direct, Internet-facilitated interactions between consumers and providers.

A recent informal opinion of the Connecticut Bar Association Standing Committee on Professional Ethics