Advisory Opinion No. 95-82

Re: Mary E. McCaffrey, Esq.

A. QUESTION PRESENTED

Whether a public official, required to file a Yearly Financial Statement pursuant to R.I. Gen. Laws §§ 36-14-4, 16 and 17 and Commission Regulation 36-14-17001, must disclose payments received from state courts for legal services rendered to indigent parties as income for services "rendered to a state or municipal agency."

B. SUMMARY

Pursuant to the Rhode Island Code of Ethics, an official filing a Yearly Financial Statement pursuant to R.I. Gen. Laws §§ 36-14-4, 16 and 17 and Commission Regulation 36-14-17001, is not required to disclose payments received from state courts for legal services rendered to indigent parties as income for services "rendered to a state or municipal agency." Services rendered as a court-appointed attorney, while compensated from state funds, are not performed on behalf of a state or municipal agency. Rather, an attorney-client relationship is established with an indigent client; no rights, responsibilities or obligations exist between the attorney and the state other than the attorney's professional obligation to provide proper representation for his or her client. The nature of that relationship does not bring it within the purview of the Code of Ethics.

C. DISCUSSION

1. Facts

Mary E. McCaffrey is a Municipal Court Judge and a Probate Court Judge in the City of Warwick. As such she is a "municipal appointed official" required to file a Yearly Financial Statement pursuant to the Code of Ethics. R.I. Gen. Laws § 36-14-4, 16 and 17.

Ms. McCaffrey also has a private law practice. In that practice she occasionally receives court appointments to represent indigent clients. Bills for legal services provided pursuant to such appointments are submitted on voucher forms to the appropriate court and, subject to court approval, are paid by the State of Rhode Island.

Question #6 on the Yearly Financial Statement form distributed by the Commission calls for public officials to disclose:

...If employed by a state or municipal agency, or if self-employed and services were rendered to a state or municipal agency for an amount of income in excess of $250.00, list the date and nature of the services rendered.

2. ANALYSIS

The derivation of Question #6 on the Yearly Financial Statement is found in Commission Regulation 36-14-17001, which requires disclosure of income for services rendered "to a state or municipal agency." Neither that regulation nor any other Code provisions provide any additional guidance as to the meaning of those terms. Therefore, the Commission must look to the plain meaning of the regulation.

A court-appointed attorney does not render services "to a state or municipal agency." Rather, they receive payment from the state for services rendered to and on behalf of a private, indigent client. No rights, responsibilities or obligations exist between the court-appointed attorney and the state other than the attorney's professional obligation to provide proper representation for his or her client. The state, after an appointment is made by a court, merely reviews bills and pays them, assuming the invoiced services were in fact performed.

Therefore, the Commission concludes that the Code of Ethics, specifically the Yearly Financial Statements, was not intended to reach state-funded payments to court-appointed attorneys representing indigent clients and such payments are not required to be disclosed in response to Question #6 on those forms.

Keywords

Financial Disclosure