The Florida Bar’s Professional Ethics Committee is examining the ethical ramifications of lawyers using online payment services like PayPal, Venmo, and Apple Pay.
The Florida Bar News highlights that these online payment services can delay payments of funds into IOTA trust accounts, potentially mix trust and non-trust account funds, and reveal client information. While no formal advisory opinion has been released yet, the full committee has created a subcommittee and a report regarding this issue will be discussed at the Florida Bar’s January meeting.
Lawyers need not worry about using online payment services if the service is being used to process a payment to the lawyer for fees and costs that the lawyer has already earned and advanced, and all the money belongs to the lawyer. However, attorneys may run into ethical issues if the lawyer or third party is offering payment to the lawyer where the payment does not belong to the lawyer. This might come up when clients provide advance payment for fees or costs, or when lawyers receive clients’ settlement funds or other monies required to be held in trust.
Other issues may arise from payment apps that hold payments for several days (so the app can collect interest on the funds) or use of apps without using strict privacy settings, which may breach lawyers’ duty of confidentiality. Committee members have acknowledged that there are some payment apps designed for use by lawyers, one of which that participates in the Bar’s Member Benefits program. Using one of these instead of apps like Venmo, Apple Pay or PayPal may help attorneys avoid potentially implicating the professional responsibility rules.
To read the full article from the Florida Bar News, click here.
