NMSA 36-2-10. [Duties of attorneys.]

36-2-10. [Duties of attorneys.] It is the duty of an attorney-at-law: A. to support the constitution and the laws of the United States and of this state; B. to maintain the respect due to courts of justice and judicial officers; C. to counsel or maintain no other action, proceeding or defense than those which appear to him legal and just, excepting the defense of a person charged with a public offense; D. to employ for the purpose of maintaining causes confided to him such means only as are consistent with truth, and never to seek to mislead the judges by any artifice or false statement of fact or law; E. to maintain inviolate the confidence and preserve the secrets of his client; F. to abstain from all offensive personality and to advance no fact prejudicial to the honor or reputation of a party or a witness unless required by the justice of the cause with which he is charged; G. not to encourage either the commencement or continuation of an action or proceeding from any corrupt motive of passion or interest; H. never to reject for any consideration personal to himself the cause of the defenseless or oppressed. History: Laws 1909, ch. 53, § 27; Code 1915, § 353; C.S. 1929, § 9-127; 1941 Comp., § 18-109; 1953 Comp., § 18-1-9.