CALIFORNIA FAMILY LAW
...Procedure Before Trial/Hearing
......Disqualification of Attorney
6 Cards On This Topic:

Trial court should have denied motion disqualifying opposing counsel, with dual witness/trial counsel role, where client gave informed written consent and no evidence of prejudice to opposing parties or detriment to the judicial process.

Counsel's knowing use of D's privileged documents, impermissibly downloaded by counsel's client from D's email, was proper ground for counsel's disqualification.

Order disqualifying attorney who would also be a witness at trial improperly based on ABA witness-advocate rule, which contains no provision for informed consent.

A motion to disqualify counsel may be brought by a present or former client or a nonclient based upon a third party conflict of interest or other ethical violation.

RPC 4.2 does not prevent a plaintiff's lawyer from talking to employees of a defendant-organization who might provide relevant evidence of actionable misconduct by another employee for which the defendant may be liable.

Appeal of order disqualifying attorney automatically stays enforcement of order; whether other parts of a proceeding are stayed depends on particular facts of case.