Formal Opinion 84
Collection Agencies
(1960)

This is in response to your letter of September 6, 1960, submitting your two questions to the Washington State Bar Association in connection with Opinion 76 of the Committee.

It appears that each of you gentlemen represents "a larger, older established collection agency," that in connection with your clients' business you each "prepare all pleadings, handle all issuance of writs, and all Justice Court and Superior Court matters including entry of judgments, etc."

Your first question relates to the filing of the pleadings by a layman. We assume that you mean the mere mechanical or physical act of taking the pleadings to the court house and delivering the same to the court clerk or other official for filing. It is the opinion of this committee that the mere act of filing the pleadings unaccompanied by the issuance of writs, the taking of judgments, the entry of orders, or any other legal proceedings does not in itself involve the attorney in any unethical conduct, nor does it constitute the practice of law on the part of the layman who performs the act of delivering the pleadings to the court house.

Your second question relates to the matter of negotiations conducted by the plaintiff collection agency with defendant debtors. Direct negotiations between litigants may take place in any pending law suit and it is the opinion of the Committee that the existence of such negotiations in and of themselves do not involve the attorneys for the parties in any unethical conduct. Again it is assumed that any judgment, order of dismissal, or other procedural step which may result from such negotiations will be handled exclusively by the attorney.