Definition: Solicitation
so•lic΄i•ta΄tion n.: Solicitation: Using persuasion or other methods to entice a person to perform a specific act. The term is normally applied principally to 2 professions: Prostitutes and Attorneys.
The Dallas news has reported the Texas Supreme Court is proposing a new rule that prohibits attorneys from having sex with their clients. In the article, AT A GLANCE: LAWYERS AND SEX the new rule would prohibit lawyers requiring sex as a condition of payment or as a requirement of representation. Consensual relationships existing before the representation began would, however, be acceptable. Opponents to the new law, the Dallas News claims, suggest that this new rule would lead to frivolous lawsuits.
Now maybe I am old-fashioned, but I thought requesting sex as a form of payment for services was already illegal. Why then would lawyers need a special rule to prohibit an act that is already a crime? Moreover do the opponents to this new rule, presumably attorneys, believe that it is acceptable for attorneys to request sex as a condition of payment for legal services?
In reality sexual relationships between lawyers and clients probably happen about as often as they do in other human relationships across the sphere of human society. The real issue is whether there is an abuse of trust by the attorney. Attorneys (like psychiatrists and clergy) often have a power dynamic in such relationship that allows them to wield a great deal of influence over clients in certain situations. In many cases, the client and attorney also spend a great deal of time together in many types of highly emotional environments.
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What a bizarre new law. Should we also then make up rules that explain that the police should not frame criminals, or that university lecturers should not flirt with their students? If we’re going to make up laws that state the obvious, then why not? And, anyway, what was going on in Texas that they felt the need to create this law, was lawyer-client sex rampant in Dallas? Presumably there must have been some cases in the past that prompted a debate over introducing such a rule. And how about once the case is finished, are they still prohibited from seeing each other for a certain time? I know the US loves tinkering with laws for the sake of it, but this seems ridiculous. In the same way that teachers don’t date students and your psychologist doesn’t ask you out for dinner, do we really need new laws when surely such things are covered by existing rules?
Quite obviously attorneys are in a position of trust and there must be an internal regulating body that would deal with any inappropriate relations. Presumably such a body already has the power to deregulate attorneys who abuse their positions. If so, I really can’t see the point of making a law that will only lead to more lawsuits, unless I was an attorney after new cases, of course…