MovieChat Forums > The Whole Truth (2016) Discussion > Legal question... Would a family friend,...

Legal question... Would a family friend, with close personal ties...

posted 7 years ago by onsitectr
5 replies | jump to latest

Legal question... Would a family friend, with close personal ties to the accused son, the mother and the deceased father, REALLY be allowed to act as the Defending Lawyer of the accused murderer???

Is there no "Conflict of Interest" clause for lawyers regarding personal association with the defendants???

This, to me, was the most distracting feature (as in plot holes) for this movie, but maybe I'm mistaken about this issue, lol. {nor did I see this topic being discussed here AFAIK}

Thank you!
Pawpcorn

[–] IL_Maestro 7 years ago

I am not talking legally so i can't say for sure but i don't think there is a conflict of interest here
they hired him, the accused son and the mother
if there was a conflict of interest then they shouldn't hire him, it is their choice
just as in another movie a character chose to defend himself even that he wasn't a lawyer in a movie called "Find Me Guilty"

"It is never about what happened, it is only how you look at it!"

[–] JasunX 7 years ago

Good question.

I didn't give much thought to it while watching the movie, but now that you mention it...good question. Especially considering that he was more the law for the dead father, than he was for the son and mother.

[–] randy-s-hardin 7 years ago

If he got caught, an ethics violation would be the least of his problems.

[–] stiv-7 7 years ago

The question is one of informed consent. Consider the following example, which occurs rather frequently in the world today. The buyer and seller of a house use the same lawyer to facilitate the legal elements of the transaction. Clearly there is a conflict, as the buyer has one set of legal issues and the seller has its set, and a lawyer dealing with both will be privy to knowledge of both parties. Conflicts in this scenario can be waived by both parties signing a waiver indicating that they know this, but wish to proceed with the transaction in this manner to expedite the process. That's informed consent. A criminal defence lawyer should (this is the operative word) have his client complete a similar waiver; the only difference here is that one of the parties is now dead, thus the lawyer would be under no obligation to disclose the conflict to the deceased.

[–] lostn 7 years ago

He had been employed for years as their legal counsel to defend them in all legal matters. So why wouldn't he be doing the job he was hired to do?

It's natural to be close to those who've employed you long term in a position where you see each other on a daily basis.

Think of him as a law firm that represents a big company and only that company. You would not bar that law firm from defending the company because they are close to them would you?

Where it would be inappropriate to be their attorney is if he was also a witness. But that wasn't the narrative the movie was playing at.