Rule 3.140.Resignation of Attorneys

Start with the paperwork. An application to resign, a notice of termination, or a notice of substitution made under ORS 9.380 must carry the court contact information for the party and, if someone is being substituted in, for the new attorney, plus the date of any scheduled trial or hearing. UTCR 1.110 defines court contact information as the person's name, a mailing address, a telephone number, and an email address and fax number if they have them. Service runs to the party and to the opposing party's attorney; if no attorney has appeared for the opposing party, it goes to that party directly. A notice of withdrawal, termination, or substitution must be filed promptly.

The trial or hearing date is the item most often left out, and it is the one the court needs. A withdrawal on the eve of trial reads differently than one at the pleading stage, and the rule makes you say which it is.

The rest of the rule answers a different question: who is the attorney of record. Filing the initial appearance for a party makes you that party's attorney of record, and so does personally appearing for a party at arraignment on an offense. Either can be avoided, but only at that time, by telling the court and the opposing parties otherwise in open court or by going through the notice procedure in subsection (1). An attorney employed or appointed in a case that is already pending must immediately notify the court and the opposing party in writing or in open court, and becomes the attorney of record unless the attorney tells the court otherwise.

Two committee commentaries set the boundaries. The 1987 commentary says the rule changes nothing about the procedures in the ORCP for taking a default judgment and only addresses who is considered the attorney of record. The 1991 commentary says the rule neither establishes new standards of professional responsibility nor provides a way to discharge existing ones, pointing to the Oregon Rules of Professional Conduct instead.