In a ruling that ethics attorneys say is not as startling as it might appear, the New Jersey Supreme Court on Wednesday indefinitely suspended two lawyers and disbarred a third for sex offenses involving children, but stopped short of issuing a bright-line disbarment rule in such cases.
In a 6-1 ruling, the majority declined to mandate the automatic disbarment of lawyers who commit sex offenses involving children, and said matters must be resolved on a case-by-case basis—with particular emphasis on whether the attorney had actual physical contact with the child victim.
