LEO: Trust Account - Lost Check  LE Op. 415

 

Trust Account - Lost Check.

 

May 20, 1981

 

An attorney disbursed a net proceeds check to a seller, which check was

drawn on his real estate escrow account. The check was subsequently

presented to the seller's bank and honored. The check has never been

received, however, by the attorney's drawee bank; so it has not been

debited in the attorney's real estate escrow account. The attorney has

made a good-faith effort to trace the lost check. Under the circumstances,

it is not ethically improper for the attorney to withdraw the funds

represented by the net proceeds check and deposit those funds in a

separate interest-bearing certificate, pending the possible resolution of

the lost check. [See II: DR:9-102 and DR:9-103(B)(4) and (5).1

 

Committee Opinion May 20, 1981