The Japan Federation of Bar Associations maintained his previous position concerning a controversial issue whether credit card payment to an attorney fee shall be restricted; the association asked members to discourage to be member-shops of credit companies. The resolution was executed on the board meeting on 19th March 2009.
The leadership of the JFBA was going to approve the credit card payment as means of settlement of attorney’s fee. In the board meeting, there was some opinion that a lump-sum payment by credit card should be admittable.
However, a hesitant opinion gained an advantage that if credit card payment were encouraged, dignity of an attorney’s work may be impaired; an attorney’s work should not be as same as a usual business.
This reluctant attitude may be based on the over-indebtedness caused by excessive credit card settlement; it claims that to encourage using credit card payment to an attorney’s fee shall make over-indebtedness issue get worse.
By the resolution, the JFBA is going to issue a notice that following practices may be disciplinable against a ethical code of conduct: a credit card company introduce his client to a connected member attorney positively; a member discloses a details of his case to a connected credit card company; an attorney recommend his client to use credit card for his payment, although the attorney know is aware of the state of his client’s shortage of financial ability.
