---
title: O.C.G.A. § 15-19-4. Duties of attorneys.
collection: code
id: 15-19-4
cite_as: O.C.G.A. § 15-19-4 (2025)
canonical_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/15-19-4
md_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/15-19-4.md
text_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/15-19-4/text
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date: 2025
status: active
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publisher: Georgia Commons, an independent project of Georgia Civic Data. Not the State of Georgia. Not legal advice.
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heading_path: COURTS / ATTORNEYS / GENERAL PROVISIONS
---

# O.C.G.A. § 15-19-4. Duties of attorneys.

It is the duty of attorneys at law:

(1) To maintain the respect due to courts of justice and judicial officers;

(2) To employ, for the purpose of maintaining the causes confided to them, such means only as are consistent with truth and never to seek to mislead the judges or juries by any artifice or false statement of the law;

(3) To maintain inviolate the confidence and, at every peril to themselves, to preserve the secrets of their clients;

(4) To abstain from all offensive personalities and to advance no fact prejudicial to the honor or reputation of a party or a witness unless required by the justice of the cause with which they are charged;

(5) To encourage neither the commencement nor the continuance of an action or proceeding from any motives of passion or interest; and

(6) Never to reject, for a consideration personal to themselves, the cause of the defenseless or oppressed.

## History

Orig. Code 1863, § 391; Code 1868, § 452; Code 1873, § 417; Code 1882, § 417; Civil Code 1895, § 4427; Civil Code 1910, § 4965; Code 1933, § 9-601.

## Cross References

Establishment of attorney-client privilege, § 24-5-501.

## Editor's Notes

In light of the inherent power of the judiciary to regulate the bar, this section is directory only. See Wallace v. Wallace, 225 Ga. 102, 166 S.E.2d 718 (1969) and Sams v. Olah, 225 Ga. 497, 169 S.E.2d 790 (1969). See also the Code of Professional Responsibility in the Rules and Regulations for Organization and Government of the State Bar of Georgia.

## Law Reviews

For article, ‘‘Legal Ethics and the Lawyer’s Duty of Loyalty,’’ see 29 Emory L.J. 909 (1981).

For note, ‘‘Conflicts of Interest in the Liability Insurance Setting,’’ 13 Ga. L. Rev. 973 (1979).

## Administrative Rules and Regulations

Appearance by attorneys; signing of pleadings, Official Compilation of the Rules and Regulations of the State of Georgia, Office of State Administrative Hearings, Administrative Rules of Procedure, Rule 616-1-2-.34.