State Bar of California Standing Committee on Professional Responsibility and Conduct Formal Opinion 2007-172
Topic: Payment of fees and/or expenses by credit card.
Digest of the Committee:
“1. An attorney may ethically accept payment of earned fees from a client by credit card. In doing so, however, the attorney must discharge his or her duty of confidentiality.
2. Likewise, an attorney may ethically accept a deposit for fees not yet earned from a client by credit card, but must discharge his or her duty of confidentiality.
3. By contrast, an attorney may not ethically accept a deposit for advances for costs and expenses from a client by credit card because the attorney must deposit such advances into a client trust account and cannot do so initially because they are paid through an account that is subject to invasion.”
Rules:
California Rules 1-320, 3-100, 3-700, 4-100, and 4-200
Business and Professions Code section 6068
The full text is available at http://ethics.calbar.ca.gov…