In re Opinion 710 of the Advisory Committee on Professional Ethics
New Jersey Supreme Court
939 A.2d 794 (2008)
- Written by Rich Walter, JD
Facts
The New Jersey Advisory Committee on Professional Ethics (the committee) received a request for a ruling on the ethics of a hypothetical real estate transaction, in which the parties intentionally inflated the sale price of a parcel of real property. As a result, the buyer's lender (plaintiff) loaned the buyer more money than was warranted. The transaction also featured a contractual seller's concession clause, pursuant to which the seller gave the buyer a purchase credit for the amount by which the property's price was inflated. The committee issued Opinion 710, holding that it would be unethical for a lawyer (defendant) to draft such a seller's concession, and implying that the lawyer could be liable to the lender for fraud. In response to many requests for clarification, the New Jersey State Bar Association asked the state supreme court to review Opinion 710.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Per curiam)
What to do next…
Here's why 812,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 46,300 briefs, keyed to 988 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
- The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
- Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
- Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.