7th Circuit - Attorney Duty to File Appeal
The Seventh Circuit recently published an interesting dictum discussion on a lawyer’s duty to file an appeal when requested to do so by a client. Nunez v. U.S. (July 31, 2007). Specifically, is a lawyer required to file a notice of appeal despite a defendant having already waived the right to appeal? The Court questioned whether the sixth amendment requires a lawyer to be a client’s puppet for all instructions and noted that ministerial requests are different from following strategic ones. In Nunez, the defendant accepted a plea bargain that included a waiver of an appeal. The lawyer refused the defendant’s instruction to file a notice of appeal. A lawyer’s duty is twofold in this situation: 1) preserve the benefits of the plea bargain for the client, and 2) avoid frivolous litigation. The defendant’s instruction was not ministerial. Ultimately the Court did not rule on this issue because the defendant has also waived any right to file a collateral attack.
Ethics, Criminal Law
Add comment August 8, 2007
