TITLE 3

ATTORNEYS AND COUNSELORS AT LAW

CHAPTER 2

RIGHTS AND DUTIES OF ATTORNEYS

3-201.  Duties of attorneys. In addition to such duties as the Supreme Court may by rule prescribe, it is the duty of the attorney and counselor:

1.  To support the constitution and laws of the United States and of this state.

2.  To maintain the respect due to the courts of justice and judicial officers.

3.  To counsel or maintain such actions, proceedings or defenses only as appear to him legal or just, except the defense of a person charged with a public offense.

4.  To employ, for the purpose of maintaining the causes confided to him, such means only as are consistent with truth, and never seek to mislead the judges by an artifice or false statement of fact or law.

5.  To maintain inviolate the confidence, and at every peril to himself, to preserve the secrets of his clients.

6.  To abstain from all offensive personality, and to advance no fact prejudicial to the honor or reputation of a party or witness, unless required by the justice of the cause with which he is charged.

7.  Not to encourage either the commencement or the continuance of an action or proceeding from any motive of passion or interest.

8.  Never to reject for any consideration personal to himself, the cause of the defenseless or the oppressed.

History:

[(3-201) C.C.P. 1881, sec. 120; R.S., R.C., & C.L., sec. 3997; C.S., sec. 6572; am. 1929, ch. 63, sec. 4, p. 92; I.C.A., sec. 3-201.]