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THE LAW IS A ASS for 12/03/2002
DOCKET ENTRY
"The Law is a Ass" Installment # 173
Originally written as installment # 292 and published in Comics Buyer's Guide issue # 1516, December 6, 2002 issue
******
THE LAW IS A ASS
Installment # 173
by
BOB INGERSOLL
I suppose it shouldn't have surprised me. We are, after all, talking about Matt Murdock, a man whose concept of legal ethics is malleable as a crazy straw. Don't forget, Matt routinely captured super-villains as Daredevil, then defended them as Matt Murdock; all the time ignoring the Code of Professional Responsibility which forbids such conflicts of interest. Matt is, remember, the man who recently agreed to represent a millionaire, who wanted to sue Daredevil, again conveniently ignoring the obvious conflict of interests found in suing yourself. And this is the man who tried to get himself out from under said lawsuit, by having Spider-Man appear in a Daredevil costume so Matt could argue there are two Daredevils, when he knew there was only one; thereby creating false evidence and perpetrating a fraud upon the court.
So, I shouldn't have been too surprised by what Matt did in the Daredevil/Spider-Man mini-series. Actually, to be fair, I should have said that based on what happened in Daredevil/Spider-Man, I shouldn't have been surprised by the fact that Matt later sued himself, because the Paul Jenkins-Phil Winslade mini-series came out first. But who said life was fair? Certainly not the people who expect Daredevil--you know the good guy?--to act with a modicum of ethics. People who weren't expecting this...
In Daredevil/Spider-Man # 1, a turf war between the Kingpin and the Owl starts out with a bang, literally, when the Owl's henchmen send heat-seeking missiles into the Kingpin's headquarters. Maybe it was because Kingpin was so cold-hearted, but the heat seekers failed to kill him. To cover up the fact that he was a mobster and the explosion was the first volley in a turf war, the Kingpin claimed the explosion was caused by a gas leak Now, however, he's facing civil suits from all the people injured in the "gas leak" explosion. So, in issue # 2 of the mini-series, Kingpin hires Matt Murdock to represent him in these suits.
Hires him by blackmailing him. See, Kingpin knows that Matt is secretly Daredevil. So he threatens Matt with the knowledge that if he doesn't represent the Kingpin and also, as Daredevil, track down who's behind the attacks, more innocents will die. So,Matt agrees to represent the Kingpin, reluctantly. Kingsy, a word to the wise: blackmailing your attorney into taking the case? Never a good idea. If there's one thing you don't want your lawyer to be it's disgruntled.
The rest of issue 2, all of issue # 3, and most of issue # 4 deal with Daredevil and Spider-Man tracking down the criminals behind the attack on the Kingpin and engaging in the customary fight scenes with them to thwart their dastardly plans. But there's a side plot which sends Matt's partner, Foggy Nelson, to Wisconsin, where the Kingpin's accounting firm keeps his books. Matt also sends the Black Widow, so, while Foggy goes over the books, Widow breaks into the accounting firm's vault to look at the secret books--the ones detailing Kingpin's criminal activities that he doesn't want anyone to see.
Why did they do this? So that they can get needed information.
What information? And needed how?
Wait for it. It'll be good.
Although Black Widow doesn't find any records detailing the Kingpin's illegal activities, Foggy learns that Kingpin knowingly allowed a lead-based paint to be used, when he redecorated his office building. As New York City outlawed "the use of lead-based paints over forty years ago," the Kingpin's use of lead-based paint constituted a crime. Moreover, because he isn't having his building re-painted to bring it up to code, he's committing a on-going crime. Matt and Foggy tell Kingpin that they can't continue to represent him, as they've learned of "illegal procedures on [his] part." So, if Matt and Foggy were to continue to represent Kingpin, they would be duty bound to report his crime.
See, now isn't this a great primer for what to do if you're a lawyer and you're representing someone you don't want to represent? You use your access to his records to find out embarrassing, potentially incriminating, information about your client and blackmail him with the threat, let me off the case or I'll have to turn you in. You look for information you can use against your client's interests, despite the fact that it was learned during your attorney-client relationship so was privileged, and then proceed to use it against your client by blackmailing him.
And gloat all the time you're doing it.
(Don't forget the gloating, it's so very important.)
Intentionally using information against your client so as to blackmail him violates every canon of professional ethics there is. (Okay, maybe not the one about not suing yourself, but Matt had that one covered, too.) It's just plain wrong.
And the problem is, well the problem other than the fact that it was unethical, was that it was also unnecessary. Once Matt learned that Kingpin would continue to have a lead-based paint in his office building, he became aware not only of a past crime--having used the paint in the first place--but also a future crime--continuing to use the same paint tomorrow and the day after that and every day after that until the next remodeling. If a lawyer learns about a client's intent to commit a future crime, the lawyer can report that crime, so as to prevent it from happening, even if the lawyer learned of this future crime in a privileged communication. It's one of the exceptions built into the privileged communication rule, lawyers can report ongoing or future crimes, even if they learned about in privileged communications.
All Matt had to do was report the Kingpin's intent to commit the future crime of lead-based paint use to the appropriate New York City prosecutor, then withdraw from the Kingpin's case because of the conflict of interests inherent in a lawyer continuing to represent a man he's just ratted out to the cops.
Not only does it accomplish the same end--with the added bonus of it getting Kingpin in trouble with the law--it would have been ethical.
Which is probably why Matt Murdock never thought of it.
Bob Ingersoll
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