Jamie Ball, a spokeswoman for the Administrative Office of the Courts, said several proposed changes were actually rejected by a Supreme Court committee but inadvertently included in the final rules released Thursday.
LawReader is preparing a report on the new rules and will publish our analysis as soon as possible.
One of the errors was in the wording of a new rule that requires lawyers to report the misconduct of other attorneys and judges.
As enacted by the court, the so-called “squeal rule” says an attorney “who knows that another lawyer has committed a violation of the Rules of Professional Conduct that raises a substantial question as to the lawyer’s honesty, trustworthiness or fitness as a lawyer in other respects” must report it to the Kentucky Bar Association.
“The Supreme Court did not, however, adopt a rule that would have allowed lawyers to report confidential information to prevent clients from committing fraud.
And it did not include in its new rules commentary saying it is professional misconduct to manifest by “words or conduct” bias based on race, sex, sexual preference and other grounds.”
The so-called “squeal rule” adopted by the Supreme Court is broader than the one proposed by the committee and requires a duty to report an expanded category of misconduct. The proposed rule would have required reporting only criminal acts or conduct involving fraud, dishonesty or deceit.