SBM issues ethics opinion on handling files after attorney and client part ways
The State Bar of Michigan’s Standing Committee on Professional Ethics issued a new ethics opinion offering guidelines on how to handle the disposition of files when a lawyer-client relationship is terminated.
The opinion, RI-392, was issued December 12, 2025, and builds upon Formal Opinion R-19, issued in 2000. The new opinion focuses on what exactly a client is entitled to receive upon the termination of representation.
“Among other things, R-19 opined that a client’s right is one of access rather than possession or ownership. While R-19 provided helpful guidance on the subject of lawyer files, several questions persist: What does “access” to the files mean? To what portions of the lawyer’s file does a client have a right of “access”? How many times must “access” be granted? These and related questions were not answered specifically in R-19 but frequently arise in the context of termination of a lawyer’s representation,” RI-392 states.
The new opinion goes on to break down various aspects of file disposition after termination of client-attorney relationships, including the following:
- Proper means of giving access
- Providing paper vs electronic copies
- Scope of information to which access must be given
- Charging for copies
- Record retention
- Multiple copy requests
- Damaged files
- Disposition of files upon a lawyer’s retirement
- Attorney liens
You can read the full opinion here.
Posted December 19, 2025