Client Security Fund Established

(a) A client security fund is hereby established to promote public confidence in the judicial system and the integrity of the legal profession by reim- bursing clients, to the extent provided for by these rules, for losses resulting from the dishonest con- duct of attorneys practicing law in this state in the course of the attorney-client relationship, by providing crisis intervention and referral assis- tance to attorneys admitted to the practice of law in this state who suffer from alcohol or other sub- stance abuse problems or gambling problems, or who have behavioral health problems, and by making grants-in-aid to the organization adminis- tering the program for the use of interest earned on lawyers’ clients’ funds accounts pursuant to General Statute § 51-81c, for the purpose of fund- ing the delivery of legal services to the poor. (b) It is the obligation of all attorneys admitted to the practice of law in this state to participate in the collective effort to reimburse clients who have lost money or property as the result of the unethi- cal and dishonest conduct of other attorneys, to provide crisis intervention and referral assistance to attorneys admitted to the practice of law in this state who suffer from alcohol or other substance abuse problems or gambling problems, or who have behavioral health problems, and to fund the delivery of legal services to the poor. (c) The client security fund is provided as a public service to persons using the legal services of attorneys practicing in this state and as a means of providing crisis intervention and referral assis- tance to impaired attorneys, and grants-in-aid for the purpose of funding the delivery of legal ser- vices to the poor. All moneys and assets of the fund shall constitute a trust. (d) The establishment, administration and oper- ation of the fund shall not impose or create any obligation, expectation of recovery from or liability of the fund to any claimant, attorney or organiza- tion, and all reimbursements therefrom shall be a matter of grace and not of right. (Adopted June 29, 1998, to take effect Jan. 1, 1999; amended May 3, 2005, to take effect May 17, 2005; amended June 23, 2017, to take effect Jan. 1, 2018.)