Absolute Loyalty Prohibition Inapplicable To Same-Matter Defense Engagement
P · Principle
Individual
http://proethica.org/ontology/case/172#Absolute_Loyalty_Prohibition_Inapplicable_To_Same-Matter_Defense_Engagement
Properties
Instance of
AbsoluteLoyaltyProhibitiontoFormerClients
http://proethica.org/ontology/intermediate#AbsoluteLoyaltyProhibitiontoFormerClients
Applied to
Personal injury litigation forensic engagement
Balancing with
Former Client Adversarial Participation Prohibition
Switching Sides Prohibition in Adversarial Proceedings
Concrete expression
Engineer A's acceptance of the defense-side engagement cannot be justified by the principle that engineers are not perpetually bound to former clients, because that principle permits adverse engagements only in unrelated matters — the defense engagement is in the same matter as the plaintiff-side engagement
Confidence
0.92
Importance
medium
Interpretation
The Absolute Loyalty Prohibition's exception for unrelated matters does not apply here — the proposed defense engagement is directly related to (indeed, the same as) the prior plaintiff-side engagement; the principle therefore does not authorize the defense engagement
Invoked by
Engineer A Forensic Expert Switching Sides
Tension resolution
The same-matter character of the proposed defense engagement means the Absolute Loyalty Prohibition's permissive exception is unavailable — the Switching Sides Prohibition and Former Client Adversarial Participation Prohibition control
Source Evidence
Source text
Engineer A's services are terminated and his fee is paid in full.
Text references
Engineer A's services are terminated and his fee is paid in full.
Thereafter, Attorney X, representing the defendant in the case, learns of the circumstances relating to Engineer A's unwillingness to provide a report in support of Attorney Z's case and seeks to retain Engineer A
TTL
@prefix case172: <http://proethica.org/ontology/case/172#> .
@prefix owl: <http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#> .
@prefix proeth: <http://proethica.org/ontology/intermediate#> .
@prefix prov: <http://www.w3.org/ns/prov#> .
@prefix rdfs: <http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#> .
@prefix xsd: <http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#> .
case172:Absolute_Loyalty_Prohibition_Inapplicable_To_Same-Matter_Defense_Engagement a proeth:AbsoluteLoyaltyProhibitiontoFormerClients,
owl:NamedIndividual ;
rdfs:label "Absolute Loyalty Prohibition Inapplicable To Same-Matter Defense Engagement" ;
proeth:appliedto "Personal injury litigation forensic engagement" ;
proeth:balancingwith "Former Client Adversarial Participation Prohibition",
"Switching Sides Prohibition in Adversarial Proceedings" ;
proeth:conceptCategory "Principle" ;
proeth:concreteexpression "Engineer A's acceptance of the defense-side engagement cannot be justified by the principle that engineers are not perpetually bound to former clients, because that principle permits adverse engagements only in unrelated matters — the defense engagement is in the same matter as the plaintiff-side engagement" ;
proeth:confidence "0.92" ;
proeth:discoveredincase "172" ;
proeth:discoveredinpass "2" ;
proeth:discoveredinsection "facts" ;
proeth:firstdiscoveredat "2026-03-01T18:11:21.402975+00:00" ;
proeth:firstdiscoveredincase "172" ;
proeth:generatedattime "2026-03-01T18:11:21.402975+00:00" ;
proeth:importance "medium" ;
proeth:interpretation "The Absolute Loyalty Prohibition's exception for unrelated matters does not apply here — the proposed defense engagement is directly related to (indeed, the same as) the prior plaintiff-side engagement; the principle therefore does not authorize the defense engagement" ;
proeth:invokedby "Engineer A Forensic Expert Switching Sides" ;
proeth:principleclass "Absolute Loyalty Prohibition to Former Clients" ;
proeth:sourcetext "Engineer A's services are terminated and his fee is paid in full." ;
proeth:tensionresolution "The same-matter character of the proposed defense engagement means the Absolute Loyalty Prohibition's permissive exception is unavailable — the Switching Sides Prohibition and Former Client Adversarial Participation Prohibition control" ;
proeth:textreferences "Engineer A's services are terminated and his fee is paid in full.",
"Thereafter, Attorney X, representing the defendant in the case, learns of the circumstances relating to Engineer A's unwillingness to provide a report in support of Attorney Z's case and seeks to retain Engineer A" ;
proeth:wasattributedto "Case 172 Extraction" ;
prov:generatedAtTime "2026-03-01T18:28:40.766501"^^xsd:dateTime ;
prov:wasGeneratedBy "ProEthica Case 172 Extraction" .
Metadata
Extraction details
Discovered in case
172
Discovered in pass
2
Discovered in section
facts
First discovered
2026-03-01T18:11:21.402975+00:00
First case
172
Generated
2026-03-01T18:11:21.402975+00:00
Attributed to
Case 172 Extraction
Generated
2026-03-01T18:28:40.766501
Generated by
ProEthica Case 172 Extraction