Opinion 1971

The inquiry concerns a law firm’s desire to write off a long overdue client bill for unpaid legal services and to send an IRS Form 1099 identifying the client and reporting the write-off as income to the client. The committee opined that RPC 1.6 prohibits a lawyer from disclosing confidences or secrets relating to the representation of a client, with a few clearly defined exceptions. The definition of a “secret”, found in the Terminology section of the RPCs includes information which, if disclosed, would be embarrassing or likely to be detrimental to the client. The filing of IRS Form 1099 disclosing the identity of the client would be likely to be detrimental to the client and, therefore, barred by RPC 1.6. Even if filing IRS Form 1099 were mandatory, there would still be an issue of compliance with RPC 1.6. See Formal Opinion 194. The proposal also may implicate RPC 8.4(c) to the extent that it is meant simply as a threat to further debt collection.

Advisory Opinions are provided for the education of the Bar and reflect the opinion of the Committee on Professional Ethics (CPE) or its predecessors. Advisory Opinions are provided pursuant to the authorization granted by the Board of Governors, but are not individually approved by the Board and do not reflect the official position of the Bar association. Laws other than the Washington State Rules of Professional Conduct may apply to the inquiry. The Committee's answer does not include or opine about any other applicable law other than the meaning of the Rules of Professional Conduct.