amount due each client is thus always at hand. In order to check up the client's envelope, endorsement is made upon the wrapper of the case from which the money comes.

For example: Two payments are made by debtors of John Brown, John Jones paying ten dollars and John Smith five. The lawyer makes the following entries; on the wrapper of John Brown v. John Jones, "June 15, 1910, cash $10;" on the wrapper of John Brown v. John Smith, "June 15, 1910, cash $5;" on the cash envelope of John Brown he makes the following entries:

June 15, 1910- John Jones

. $10.

$5.

The cash envelope thus becomes an index to all payments on a client's account. If the cash envelopes of the various clients are kept in a strong box or safe, the necessity of a trustee account in a bank is obviated. Settlement should be made with each client as often as is conveniently possible. If the lawyer maintains a private checking account, settlements may readily be made by means of a check for which cash withdrawal is made from the client's cash envelope.

METHOD OF KEEPING TRUST FUNDS A QUESTION FOR THE INDIVIDUAL

It is after all for the individual lawyer to determine how he shall keep separate the money of his

client from his own. Various practical experiments may become necessary before a satisfactory method is found, but if through all his experimenting the lawyer bears in mind that duty to his client and to his own professional reputation forbids the mingling of trust funds, he will thereby avoid probable embarrassment and possible disgrace.

§ 53. DUTY TO ACCOUNT.

A lawyer who is occupying the relation of trustee to a client, whether managing an estate, looking after a particular business, or receiving moneys on the client's account, is under a duty to respond to any reasonable demands made by the client for an accounting. The settlement should be satisfactory, and if any accounts or transactions are withheld from the client's inspection without a valid excuse being offered, the client has a right to insist peremptorially upon a full disclosure.

TRUST ESTATES TO BE SETTLED PROMPTLY

It is a breach of duty to the client unreasonably to delay the settlement of the trust estate. Such delay may be advantageous to the lawyer from a financial point of view, but it is unprofessional and illegal. An instance in point came to the writer's attention recently. A lawyer had been appointed administrator of a small estate.

For over four years he delayed, upon one pretext and another, to settle the estate. The heirs then joined in a concerted action to force the administrator to file an inventory, which up to that time had not been filed. His charge for services, as shown by the first and final account was in the neighborhood of three thousand dollars, a sum greater than that to be received by any one of the heirs. They contested the account on the ground that the charge was grossly excessive. The administrator's duties were trivial. The heirs alleged that the estate could as well have been settled at the end of the first year as four years later. The court disallowed the item, and it was reduced to a comparatively modest sum.

§ 54. RETURN OF DOCUMENTS AND PAPERS.

If, after the suit is settled, the client desires the return of documents, letters, or papers entrusted to a lawyer during the pendency of litigation, it is the lawyer's duty to return them at his earliest convenience. The documents may have become as so much waste paper, but they belong to the client, and his wishes should be respected.

$55. DUTY TO RESPECT CONFIDENCES.1

Communications of a client to his attorney are privileged. Hence, the lawyer owes the client a

1 See also § 5.

duty not to reveal any information that comes to him from the client that was called forth by the confidential relation existing between them. Nor does lapse of time, nor an estrangement between the parties, lessen the lawyer's duty in this respect. The client possesses the sole right to waive the privilege.

Greenleaf says: "The protection given by the law to such communications does not cease with the termination of the suit, or other litigation or business, in which they were made; nor is it affected by the party's ceasing to employ the attorney and retaining another; nor by any other change of relations between them; nor by the death of the client. The seal of the law, once fixed upon them, remains forever, unless removed by the party himself, in whose favor it was there placed." 1

1

§ 56. SUMMARY OF CHAPTER.

The lawyer is under a duty to his client not to over-charge, nor to drive a sharp bargain with the client. He should not procure the signing away of a client's rights in litigation without acquainting the client with the exact sum to be paid for such surrender. The various considerations entering into the fixing of a charge are enumerated. The lawyer should not sue his client for a fee

1 Greenleaf on Evidence, Sec. 243.

unless to prevent imposition or fraud or to settle a legitimate misunderstanding. He is under a duty not to mingle trust funds with moneys of his own. He is under a duty to his client to render an account whenever reasonably demanded. Documents and papers should be returned promptly to the client after being used, if he so desires. The lawyer is under a duty to keep sacred all confidential communciations from a client.