Some of my clients want to pay advance fee retainers by credit card. Those transactions should go through my trust account, right?
Credit card payments present a problem because credit card issuers usually require the lawyer to authorize the issuer to reverse transactions or unilaterally debit the trust account for transaction fees, charges which exceed balance limits, and other costs. This gives a non-lawyer the power to withdraw client funds from a trust account, which is prohibited by Rule 1.15(j), MRPC. While the use of credit cards for payment of funds that are to be held in trust is discouraged, it can be done. Unless the credit card company can credit the funds to the trust account, while debiting all fees exclusively from a business or other non-trust account, all credit card transactions should be processed through the lawyers business account and any unearned portion immediately transferred to the lawyers trust account. The lawyer must transfer the full amount of the unearned funds to his/her trust account and may not deduct any credit card fees from those funds.
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