Michael Trittipo

Maintaining Your Client Trust Accounts with Trustbooks Michael Trittipo

At various times in history and various places, lawyers or their counterparts have been frowned upon, even prohibited from being paid for their help. This was the case at various times in the Roman Empire, and even in some of the colonies in North America before the American Revolution. Fortunately, such prohibitions have generally not lasted long. It is widely accepted that lawyers should be paid fairly for the help they provide. Indeed, lawyers may ask for money "up front." But doing so comes with an accompanying obligation: to be able to tell clients what was done with the money; to give an account of it. The details of that obligation in Minnesota today are defined by Rule 1.15 of the Minnesota Rules of Professional Conduct ("MRPC"). It is supplemented by an "Appendix 1," issued every year by the Lawyers Professional Responsibility Board ("LPRB"). You should re-read both documents every year; they change from time to time. Appendix 1 is subject to annual revision, and Rule 1.15 was most recently amended in the fall of 2015. Those two documents tell you what records you must keep, but mostly do not say how. That is this guide's purpose: to explain how you can keep the required records, in this guide's case by using an online subscription service called TrustBooks.