LEGAL ETHICS

1. Atty. Y had an amorous relationship with his secretary, Ms. B. Despite being
married, he got married with Ms. B in Butuan City. After then, he filed for
annulment of his marriage with his first wife on the ground of lack of marriage
license.
a. State the four fold duties of a lawyer
b. Did Atty. Y commit any violation of the Code of Professional Responsibility?

2. Distinguish Ambulance Chasing and Barratry

3. Atty. B represents Carlos (an insurance agent for Door Insurance Co.) in a suit
filed by insurance claimant Loki who also sued Door Insurance. The insurance
policy requires the insured/claimant to give a written notice to the insurance
company or its agent within 60 days from the occurrence of the loss. Loki
testified during the trial that he had mailed the notice of the loss to the
insurance agent, but admitted that he lost the registry receipt so that he did not
have any documentary evidence of the fact of mailing and of the timeliness of
the mailed notice. Door Insurance denied liability, contending that timely notice
had not been given either to the company or its agent. Atty. B’s client, agent
Carlos, testified and confirmed that he never received any notice. A few days
after Carlos testified, he admitted to Atty. B that he had lied when he denied
receipt of Loki’s notice; he did receive the notice by mail but immediately
shredded it to defeat Loki’s claim. If you were Atty. B, what would you do in
light of your client’s (Carlos) disclosure that he perjured himself when he
testified?

4. Atty. Repa, a law school classmate, approached you on your 25th Class
Reunion, with questions on how he can resume the practice of law in the
Philippines. He left the country in 1977 after two (2) years of initial law practice,
and migrated to the United States where he was admitted to the practice of law
in the State of New York. He asks that you give him a formal legal opinion on
his query.

Outline briefly the steps and the supporting legal reasons you would state in
your legal opinion on what Atty. Repa should do to resume his Philippine
practice.

5. (A) May an attorney talk to his witnesses before and during the trial? Explain.
(B) In case of postponement of the trial, whose decision should prevail – the
client or his attorney? Explain the governing rule.
6. Define the following terms: (4%)
(A) counsel de officio
(B) counsel de parte
(C) amicus curiae
(D) attorney of record

7. In a land registration case before Judge Lucio, the petitioner is represented by

the second cousin of Judge Lucio’s wife.
(A) Differentiate between compulsory and voluntary disqualification and
determine if Judge Lucio should disqualify himself under either circumstance.
(B) If none of the parties move for his disqualification, may Judge Lucio proceed
with the case?

8. Atty. Luna maintains an account in the social media network calls Twitter and
has 1,000 followers there, including fellow lawyers and some clients. Her
Twitter account is public so even her non-followers could see and read her
posts, which are called tweets. She oftentimes takes to Twitter to vent about her
daily sources of stress like traffic or to comment about current events. She also
tweets her disagreement and disgust with the decisions of the Supreme Court
by insulting and blatantly cursing the individual Justices and the Court as an
institution.

(A) Does Atty. Luna act in a manner consistent with the Code of Professional
Responsibility? Explain the reasons for your answer. (3%)

(B) Describe the relationship between a lawyer and the courts. (3%)

9. Maria and Atty. Clara met each other and became good friends at zumba class.
One day, Maria approached Atty. Clara for legal advice. It turned out that
Maria, a nurse, previously worked in the Middle East. So she could more easily
leave for work abroad, she declared in all her documents that she was still
single. However, Maria was already married with two children. Maria again had
plans to apply for work abroad but this time, wished to have all her papers in
order. Atty. Clara, claiming that she was already overloaded with other cases,
referred Maria’s case to another lawyer. Maria found it appalling that after Atty.
Clara had learned of her secrets, the latter refused to handle her case. Maria’s
friendship with Atty. Clara permanently turned sour after Maria filed an
administrative case against the latter for failing to return borrowed jewelry.
Atty. Clara, on the other hand, threatened to charge Maria with a criminal case
for falsification of public documents, based on the disclosures Maria had earlier
made to Atty. Clara.
 (A) Was the consultation of Maria with Atty. Clara considered privileged?
(B) What are the factors to establish the existence of attorney-client privilege?

10. (A) What is the best form of advertising possible for a lawyer?
(B) What are the allowable or permissible forms of advertising by a lawyer?

11. X was accused of raping his 11-year-old stepdaughter. X’s counsel of record
was PAO's Atty. A. During the pre-trial, both of them failed to appear. X was
considered by the court as having jumped bail. Trial in absentia followed where
X was assisted by another PAO lawyer, Atty. B. Atty. A did not appear in all the
subsequent hearings of the case. He did not inform the court of his
whereabouts. X was found guilty beyond reasonable doubt of the crime charged
and imposed upon him the death penalty. Did Atty. A live up to the demands
expected from a counsel de officio?

12. Can non-lawyers be commissioned as Notaries Public?

13. A complaint was filed against Judge G for the delay in the resolution of motions
relative a civil case. Plaintiff A averred that the case was filed way back on
August 8, 2001. After numerous postponements, pre-trial was finally set on
December 6, 2007. On December 20, 2007, counsel for complainant received an
order dated December 6, 2007 dismissing the case for failure to prosecute. On
December 28, 2007, Plaintiff A filed a motion for reconsideration reasoning out
that the failure to prosecute could not be attributed to him. On July 28, 2008,
he filed his Urgent Motion for the Early Resolution of said December 2007
Motion for Reconsideration. He claimed that despite the lapse of a considerably
long period of time, no action was taken by Judge G. Did Judge G violated the
Code of Judicial Conduct?

14. Distinguish Retaining Lien v Charging Lien

15. Give instances when a lawyer may reveal the confidences and secrets of his
client.

16. Can a client discharge the services of his lawyer without a cause? If yes, what
is/are the effect/s?

17. If the client insists on hiring an additional counsel as collaborating counsel over
and above the objection of the original counsel, may the original counsel
withdraw from the case, and how?

18. A sold B his land for 10 million pesos. It was agreed that B would pay a
downpayment of 4 million and the remaining 6 million would be paid through
monthly installments of 100,000 for a period of 5 months. That upon full
payment of the purchase price, A promised to deliver the Certificate of Title.

Prepare the following documents in legally acceptable and enforceable forms,

based on the above facts:

(a) Deed of conditional Sale

(b) Deed of Absolute Sale
(c) Judicial Affidavit of B in case A filed a civil case against him for breach of
contract.