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You arrived at this page by selecting:Lawyers work on the principle that for the most part clients make decisions, not lawyers. Lawyers just advise.
The lawyer advises and the client decides. And the client is entitled to decide even if that decision is not the decision that the lawyer would make, or is against the advice of the lawyer. This is how it should be. Clients are in charge, not lawyers.
As always however, there are exceptions.
The lawyer is required to comply with his code of ethics irrespective. He is an officer of the court as well a the client's servant, and therefore he cannot be asked to do anything that is against his duty to the court. He is also entitled to overrule the wishes of the client where the client's motives are not entirely pure, e.g., attempting to use the legal system for an illegitimate end such as causing somebody harassment rather than to pursue vindication on a point, or insisting on a case being put in a misconceived vexatious inadmissible or impossible way.
In short, if a client gives a lawyer instructions, then if those instructions are physically capable of being carried out the lawyer should do so, but there are always exceptions that will crop up in an occasional case, and whether those exceptions apply are solely within the discretion of the lawyer concerned.
