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CMLawLibraryBlog

The CM Law Library Blog seeks to inform the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law community about key legal education, research, practice, and law library news, with a particular focus on Cuyahoga County and Ohio as well as faculty research interests.

Rule Requiring Lawyers to be Courteous Held Unconstitutional

Jan Novak, Associate Director jan.novak@law.csuohio.edu | October 04, 2007 - 19:27

Person yelling.A federal court in Michigan recently ruled that the state’s attorney conduct rules violate free speech, due process, and are overbroad and vague. (Fieger v. Michigan Supreme Court, E.D. Mich., Civ. No. 06-11684, 9/4/07 as reported in the ABA/BNA’s Lawyer’s Manual of Professional Conduct, 23 Law. Man. Prof. Conduct 470). Rule 3.5(c), forbidding “undignified or discourteous conduct” and Rule 6.5(a), requiring lawyers to treat others with “courtesy and respect” were declared unconstitutional. The case involved a challenge to a disciplinary action against an attorney for his criticism of the judiciary on a radio program.

In language similar to that of Michigan’s rules, Ohio’s Rules of Professional Conduct 3.5 (a)(6) specifies that a lawyer shall not “engage in undignified or discourteous conduct that is degrading to a tribunal.”


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