In some cases, a lawyer or an attorney may have a conflict of interest. If this is significant to the case, they may be required to remove themselves from that case. They cannot offer proper legal counsel.
But what is the problem with having a conflict of interest? The lawyer certainly still understands this area of the law and the goals they need to accomplish for the client. Couldn’t they just separate the cases and work on them from different angles?
Whose best interests are being upheld?
The problem is that an attorney is always supposed to be working toward their clients’ best interests. The decisions that they make should either be to win the case or accomplish the client’s goals. But a conflict of interests may make this impossible, meaning that even minor decisions are made unfairly.
For example, say that a private individual wants to sue a local business. The lawyer says that they will take the case. They appear to work diligently on it, but they still lose the case.
It then comes out that the lawyer’s spouse was a cofounder of the local business. They don’t work there anymore, but they still hold a significant ownership percentage, and the business is how they make money. Does this conflict of interest mean that the lawyer wasn’t actually doing everything in their power to win their client’s case?
This is just one example to show why a conflict of interest is a problem, and it won’t always be as overt as the lawyer having a spouse involved with the other side of the case. But any time that a conflict of interest presents itself, the client needs to know what legal options they have.