Connecticut Rules of Professional Conduct (Connecticut Practice Book) 1.8-e: Financial assistance to litigation clients limited to costs, indigent clients and modest gifts for basic needs

What does 1.8-e require?

Financial help to a client tied to pending or contemplated litigation is barred, with three exceptions: court costs and litigation expenses may be advanced with repayment contingent on the result; they may simply be paid for an indigent client; and a lawyer acting pro bono for an indigent client directly, through a nonprofit legal services or public interest body, a law school clinic or pro bono program, a bar program or a public defender's office may give modest gifts covering food, shelter, transport, medicine and other basic living costs. No such gift may be promised before retention, used to keep the client or to steer the client's decisions, reimbursed by the client or anyone connected with the client, or advertised to prospective clients. The permission holds even where a fee-shifting statute could yield a fee.