Willful Lie by an Attorney

[BobK]

My question relates to legal practice in the state of: North Carolina

My question relates to legal practice in the state of: North Carolina

is it against the scope of practice for an attorney to knowingly and willfully lie about a material fact to the opposing attorney or party?

here are some details.....

When first taking a case, said attorney asked her client if there was any question or possiblilty that the child in question was the child of the plaintiff trying to sue for a paternity test.

The woman told her attorney that there was absolutely no possibility that the child could be someone elses child other than the plaintiffs. There was absolutely no question about it. She also told her attorney that she did not want her to tell the plaintiff otherwise.

Yet, in correspondence with this attorney by the plaintiff the attorney replied to him that the defendent "was not even sure that this was his child".

So, the attorney, willfully and knowingly lied about this material fact which caused the plaintiff to withdraw his case in attempting to find out if this was his child or not and gave up any rights to do so in the future.

Has this attorney violated any kind of ethics in the profession or code of conduct?

[KeyWestDan]

The attorney is not paid by you and owes you no duty.

You have no claim and even if you did, no damages of any significance that are legally collectible.

Nobody at the bar association cares about a he said, she said dispute in divorce or any family law case. Nobody cares and nobody would do anything.

It is sort of like perjury. There is no private cause of action.

[Mr. Knowitall]

It sounds like you're describing a contested paternity case. If you're the mother and, after instructing your lawyer to dispute and oppose the father's claim, you're now upset that he followed your instruction, why did you oppose the petition for paternity?

If you're the father and, after receiving the mother's answer to your paternity petition which denied that you were the father, you suddenly decided to drop your case because the lawyer reaffirmed the mother's position as stated in her answer, even if we overlook the fact that you would be describing an ethical lapse and not something that would give you a right to sue the lawyer, why would that have caused you to drop your case? And why do you believe the case can't be refiled? Who says the attorney lied - the mother? What's her present motivation?