Rule 1.16A Client Files

(a) A lawyer must make the client’s file available to the client or former client within a reasonable time after the client’s request for the file.

(b) For purposes of this Rule, the client’s file consists of the following materials, regardless of whether the materials are in physical or electronic form: (1) all materials provided by the client to the lawyer; (2) all correspondence relating to the client’s matter; (3) all pleadings and other legal documents filed with a tribunal or completed but not yet filed with a tribunal or served upon any party relevant to the client’s matter; (4) all orders and other records of a tribunal; (5) all investigatory or discovery documents, including but not limited to interrogatories and their answers, deposition transcripts, medical records, photographs, investigative reports, expert reports, witness statements, and exhibits; (6) legal opinions issued at the client’s request; (7) third-party assessments, evaluations, or records paid for by the client; and (8) copies of notes, documents, and tangible materials prepared in the course of the representation of the client by the lawyer or at the lawyer’s direction by the lawyer’s employee, agent, or consultant, and not otherwise described in subsections (1) through (7) above, regardless of whether it is considered “work product” by the lawyer.

(c) Notwithstanding the provisions of subsections (a) and (b) above, a lawyer may withhold the following file documents from the client despite the client’s request for the entire file: (1) documents or information to which the client is not entitled, such as a legal memorandum from a different case not involving the client, which the lawyer used in preparing a memorandum or related document for the client; (2) communications showing the lawyer consulted other counsel or the lawyer’s professional malpractice insurer to discuss the lawyer’s potential exposure to professional discipline or malpractice liability; (3) communications with others in the same law firm relating to administrative matters including but not limited to work assignments, routine conflicts reviews, the client’s creditworthiness, time and expense records, or personnel matters; (4) electronic documents or information such as metadata that would be unreasonably burdensome or expensive for the lawyer to identify, locate, and produce in a readable or accessible format; (5) documents for which there is applicable law or a court order prohibiting the delivery of the documents or the information contained in those documents, in whole or in part, to the client; (6) drafted but unexecuted estate plans, title opinions, contracts, documents regarding the formation, operation, or termination of a business or other association, or any other unexecuted document, unless the lawyer has already received compensation for preparing the document; and (7) documents which the lawyer has reasonable cause to believe would endanger the health, safety, or welfare of the client or others if the documents or the information contained in those documents, in whole or in part, were provided to the client.

(d) Paragraph (b) requires a lawyer to preserve only those materials that a reasonable lawyer would preserve.

(e) Upon request by a client or former client for the client’s file, a lawyer may require the client to pay: (1) copying charges for copying the file documents consistent with the lawyer’s actual copying cost, excluding time and labor, unless the client has already paid for but not yet received copies of the respective documents; and (2) the lawyer’s actual cost for the postage to mail or otherwise deliver the file documents to the client.

(f) A lawyer is not required to turn over to the client or former client documents for which the client is obligated to pay under an enforceable fee agreement but has not paid, provided however, that a lawyer may not refuse to make available materials in the client’s file on the grounds of nonpayment if such retention would result in imminent prejudice to the client. See Rule 1.16(d).

(g) A lawyer shall not destroy a client’s file if the lawyer knows or reasonably should know that: (1) a lawsuit or other legal claim related to the client’s matter is pending or anticipated; (2) a criminal or other governmental investigation related to the client’s matter is pending or anticipated; or (3) a disciplinary investigation or proceeding related to the client’s matter or a Client Assistance Fund claim is pending or anticipated.