Should i report a lawyer that is having an improper relationship with his client in a divorce preceding.

In Texas, the conduct of lawyers is governed by the Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct (TDRPC). There is no rule prohibiting a lawyer from engaging in a consensual sexual relationship with a client. Within the last year or two, a new proposed set of rules was developed which included a prohibition against lawyers engaging in such relationships under certain circumstances, but the entire package of proposed new rules was rejected in a referendum of the membership of the State Bar of Texas (SBOT). Accordingly, the new set of rules was never adopted and did not become law. Although engaging in sex with a client is not, by itself, unethical, conduct that can flow from or be related to such a relationship certainly is unethical. For example, for the lawyer to use the client's emotional attachment to the lawyer as leverage to obtain a higher fee from the client is a violation of the lawyer's duty of loyalty to the client and constitutes conduct involving dishonesty and deceit and is, therefore, an ethical violation on two separate bases. In your case, you do not specify how the lawyer may be "manipulating the client emotionally." Certain forms of client manipulation would be clearly unethical, while others might not. The determination would be fact-sensitive. You mention that the case has dragged on for two and a half years. If the lawyer has caused this to happen without any legitimate reason, that conduct, standing alone, is unethical under TDRPC 3.02. Depending on what his motive has been in causing the case to drag out unnecessarily, the punishment for the violation might be more or less severe. The ABA model rules of professional conduct do not have any force of law in Texas. Therefore, the lawyer's violation of an ABA rule could not properly form the basis of discipline under Texas law. If you are a lawyer, you have an affirmative duty to report to the State Bar of Texas if you know that another lawyer has committed a violation of the rules of professional conduct that "raises a substantial question" as to that lawyer's honesty, trustworthiness or fitness as a lawyer. TDRPC 8.03. If you are not a lawyer, you have no legal duty to report unethical conduct of a lawyer to anyone. If you wish to report the lawyer, the agency of state government you should report to is the State Bar of Texas. A link to the SBOT website appears below. All of the information you need and a complaint form are there. You can file an anonymous report, but SBOT probably would not process it. You should know that filing a complaint against a lawyer is not actionable, even if it is later determined to be without merit. In other words, the lawyer could not successfully sue you for making a complaint against him to SBOT. In response to your question as to whether or not you should report this lawyer, I cannot say because you do not provide enough details about the facts or what concrete evidence you have to support your suspicions. What I can safely say, however, is that making a complaint involves an investment of time and effort on your part, so unless you have more than just a bare suspicion of a violation, you should probably save yourself that time and effort. If you feel you do have evidence of a violation and not just a bare suspicion, you should also take the time to review the lawyer disciplinary rules (TDRPC) and make sure there is at least one rule that appears to apply to the facts you can prove, or at least produce some evidence of. The TDRPC are also available on the SBOT website. I think informing the judge probably would not be productive. Judges can and do sanction lawyer misconduct committed in their presence, but they are generally not equipped to investigate and punish conduct that occurs outside the courtroom. Judges can and do refer suspected lawyer misconduct to SBOT, but why involve the judge in this matter when you can make a complaint to SBOT yourself? Good luck. http://www.texasbar.co