Active attorneys in good standing may ask the Disciplinary Commission for informal ethical guidance. Requests for guidance are confidential and must be submitted in writing electronically through the Indiana Courts Portal (see instructions below). Commission staff will refer attorneys to the applicable Rules, supporting Official Comments to the Rules, relevant case law, and other legal sources known to staff.
The Commission will not provide guidance on issues involving:
- Advertising
- Marketing
- Questions related to law practice or law office management not related to ethical rules. For example, “is my paralegal a 1099 or a W-2 employee” is not an ethics related question
- Questions related to pending disciplinary investigations or litigation
- Questions better suited for a different venue or agency
Instructions for requesting ethics guidance
Step One
Right-click the link below and save the Guidance Request form to your computer. Type your entries, and save the file or print to PDF. Use the free Adobe Reader or any professional version of Adobe Acrobat to ensure your entries are saved. Do not print and handwrite your entries and do not scan to PDF.
Guidance Request Form
Step Two
Sign into the Indiana Courts Portal at portal.courts.in.gov. If you are not sure how to sign in, see the help topic on signing in or creating an account.
- From the dashboard in the "My tools & settings" section, click on "Upload a document"
- From the menu, choose the document type: "Ethical Guidance Request"
- Click the browse button to locate your saved PDF and click "Submit"
- After submitting, you'll see a list of all documents you've uploaded successfully. Documents will be marked with a "Pending" status until the Disciplinary Commission has started its review. Until then, you may withdraw the document.
For more information about submitting documents through the Portal, see Secure Document Uploader.