The New Jersey Bar-Tenders To The Bar: "Log Off!"

You generally know when someone is from New Jersey. They are not use to pumping their own gas. They use the term "[email protected]%$#^ f$%#@!" as an exlamation point. They drink cawfee. They believe the that 65 mph really means 80. And, they are proficient as using the horn and the finger at the same time. Defiance is probably the word that describes the state. It is probably what is needed or required in dealing with the New Jersey Bar.

So, what in the hell is going on with the state picking on virtual law offices?

As reported by LTNLaw Technology News and the Law.Com, among others, the bar-tenders in the state have ruled that so-called "virtual offices" do not satisfy New Jersey's bona fide office rules.

The bona fide office rule requires a lawyer to be housed in a place where he or she, or a responsible person acting on the attorney's behalf, can be reached in person and by telephone during normal business hours to answer questions posed by courts, clients or adversaries.

By contrast, New Jersey now states, a "virtual office" cannot be a bona fide office since the attorney generally is not present during normal business hours but will only be present when he or she has reserved the space, and a virtual receptionist at a does not qualify as a "responsible person" acting on the lawyer's behalf who can answer questions posed by the courts, clients or adversaries" because she is not operating from a fixed physical address at which the lawyer also works.

Why do the New Jersey bar-tenders not just mandate all lawyers to wear powdered wigs?

It is a silly concept in this day and age that courts, clients and adversaries are likely to just drop into your office unannounced. I cannot imagine a Judge just roaming the streets dropping in to say "yo" to a lawyer. Clients know to call and make an appointment. In truth most clients and all opposing counsel want to handle matters over the phone or email. And, adversaries? I can just about guarantee you that if adversaries are dropping in unannounced to an attorneys' office, that is not a good thing.

Somehow forcing lawyers to maintain traditional offices with traditional staff requirements might be good news for landlords of high rise office buildings and others, but it pretty much denies the reality of not only legal practice these days but how much of the world does what they do virtually. The concept of the bona fide office rule has all of the ineptitude of the mobsters in the Soprano's. It seems like the rule has all of the reasoning that someone like Paulie Walnuts might contrive. I would call it a protections racket, but I cannot for the life of me figure out what they are protecting, except for the status quo. In the words of Tony Soprano, "Log off, that 'cookies' shit makes me nervous!"

And so it goes.

What the New Jersey bar-tenders need to learn, and need to learn quickly, is that you cannot stop progress. You cannot stop those things that make the practice of law competitive and cheaper. You cannot end the benefits of tech. Times are a changing and they are changing for good.

A little regulation is good if it is really intended to keep everyone honest. There is a big difference in telling an attorney how to conduct himself or herself properly with a client or tribunal, but it is another thing to enact rules that are designed to impede someone else's legitimate opportunity. That is what the bona fide office rules represents.

When most states have dropped or are dropping the bona fide office rule because it does not work and it offers nobody any protection, New Jersey decides it is going to double down on the rule.

The rule is just crazy.

Forgetaboutit!!!

Comments

[Corinne A. Tampas]

Yeah, and in order to turn left you have to get in the right-hand lane and turn right. Who knew?

[Judy Young]

Its most sad, that New Jersey doesn't want to come out of the dark ages and usher in progress.

[Sue Wittie]

The bona fide office rule does not create responsiveness or accountability. The New Jersey bar-tenders seem to think imposing bricks-and-mortar requirements will make a derelict lawyer answer the phone or stop hiding behind the front office excuses of "busy" or "in court." This position misses the mark. Requiring a commercial rental and formal office does not create competence in lawyering.

[Patrick H. Stiehm]

This ruling by the New Jersey Bar is out of touch with modern reality. Its effect will simply keep the cost of legal services unnecessarily high. When the Bar of any state acts in this fashion, it risks losing the ability to regulate itself and having that regulation placed in the hands of a government agency more in tune with the economic needs of the public. Do we really want that?