Rule Text (verbatim from The Florida Bar)
In representing a client, a lawyer shall exercise independent
professional judgment and render candid advice. In rendering
advice, a lawyer may refer not only to law but to other
considerations such as moral, economic, social, and political factors
that may be relevant to the client’s situation.
Educational reference. This page summarizes a Florida Rule of Professional Conduct for educational purposes. The rule text and Comment are mirrored from the Florida Bar's official publication and are public domain. The plain-English summary and any commentary are the opinion of Phillips, Hunt & Walker and are general information only — not legal advice. Reading this page does not create an attorney-client relationship. If you believe a Florida lawyer has violated this rule, you can file a complaint with The Florida Bar at floridabar.org. Past results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
What this rule means in plain English
When acting as your adviser (giving legal counsel, not litigating a case), your Florida lawyer must give you candid advice. The lawyer can refer to relevant moral, economic, social, and political factors — not just the bare legal answer. The rule recognizes that good legal advice often includes pointing out non-legal considerations. Your lawyer’s job isn’t to tell you only what you want to hear; it’s to tell you what an informed adviser thinks you should hear.
Comment (verbatim from The Florida Bar)
Scope of advice
A client is entitled to straightforward advice expressing the
lawyer’s honest assessment. Legal advice often involves unpleasant
facts and alternatives that a client may be disinclined to confront.
In presenting advice, a lawyer endeavors to sustain the client’s
morale and may put advice in as acceptable a form as honesty
permits. However, a lawyer should not be deterred from giving
candid advice by the prospect that the advice will be unpalatable to
the client.
Advice couched in narrowly legal terms may be of little value
to a client, especially where practical considerations, such as cost
or effects on other people, are predominant. Purely technical legal
advice, therefore, can sometimes be inadequate. It is proper for a
lawyer to refer to relevant moral and ethical considerations in giving
advice. Although a lawyer is not a moral adviser as such, moral
and ethical considerations impinge upon most legal questions and
may decisively influence how the law will be applied.
A client may expressly or impliedly ask the lawyer for purely
technical advice. When such a request is made by a client
experienced in legal matters, the lawyer may accept it at face value.
When such a request is made by a client inexperienced in legal
matters, however, the lawyer’s responsibility as adviser may include
indicating that more may be involved than strictly legal
considerations.
Matters that go beyond strictly legal questions may also be in
the domain of another profession. Family matters can involve
problems within the professional competence of psychiatry, clinical
psychology, or social work; business matters can involve problems
within the competence of the accounting profession or of financial
specialists. Where consultation with a professional in another field
is itself something a competent lawyer would recommend, the
lawyer should make such a recommendation. At the same time, a
lawyer’s advice at its best often consists of recommending a course
of action in the face of conflicting recommendations of experts.
Offering advice
In general, a lawyer is not expected to give advice until asked
by the client. However, when a lawyer knows that a client proposes
a course of action that is likely to result in substantial adverse legal
consequences to the client, the lawyer’s duty to the client under
rule 4-1.4 may require that the lawyer offer advice if the client’s
course of action is related to the representation. Similarly, when a
matter is likely to involve litigation, it may be necessary under rule
4-1.4 to inform the client of forms of dispute resolution that might
constitute reasonable alternatives to litigation. A lawyer ordinarily
has no duty to initiate investigation of a client’s affairs or to give
advice that the client has indicated is unwanted, but a lawyer may
initiate advice to a client when doing so appears to be in the client’s
interest.
Amended March 23, 2006, effective May 22, 2006 (933 So.2d 417).