Informal opinions shall be prepared by the Legal Ethics Counsellor in accordance with Rule 5.30. The Legal Ethics Counsellor advises only lawyers to seek advice that relates to an existing set of facts. Informal opinions cannot be given on hypothetical issues or on the conduct of a lawyer other than the one seeking the opinion. Official statements and informal notices up to June 30, 1994 are contained in a working book entitled Missouri Advisory Opinions, published by the Missouri Bar in 1995. A supplement to the Deskbook was published in 1996. The opinions contained in the Deskbook and supplement are indexed by topic and include a note on the respective rules. The book is no longer printed, but members of the Missouri Bar can view the office book and supplement in the forms bank. Formal notices published since 1996 are available on the Missouri Supreme Court website. To find formal opinions on contingency fees, do the following research: A request for a formal opinion is the appropriate way to deal with an issue of general importance that is not necessarily related to a specific factual situation. The Advisory Committee may issue formal opinions in accordance with Article 5.30(a) of the Rules of the Supreme Court. Requests for formal advice should be directed to the Chairman of the Missouri Supreme Court Advisory Committee, located at 3335 American Avenue, Jefferson City, MO 65109.
The process of issuing an official statement can take more than a year. The informal reports of 1 July 1993 are online. Since only summaries are published and informal opinions are not binding, informal opinions are generally not formally withdrawn. It is necessary to consider the most recent general guidelines on a particular subject in the most recent opinions. Before 2000, the first two digits of the opinion number indicated the year. Now the first four digits indicate the year. The informal reports of 1 July 1993 are online. You can search this database by thematic index or by search engine. The search engine allows you to search for opinions yourself using keywords or phrases. Or, if you wish, you can provide a specific opinion number. Before 2000, the first two digits of the opinion number indicated the year. Since then, the first four digits indicate the year.
The following research examples illustrate common methods for finding formal and informal ethical opinions from the American Bar Association (ABA) on the Lexis service®. While efforts have been made to summarize the important facts of the issue, not all details are included in every summary. Therefore, these summaries should be used for illustrative purposes only. Only abstracts are available; Actual copies of the application and response to the notice are not available.