Focus on Ethics & Civility

• Jurisdiction: Utah,United States
• Citation: Vol. 33 No. 3 Pg. 44
• Pages: 44
• Publication year: 2020

Focus on Ethics & CivilityVol. 33 No. 3 Pg. 44Utah Bar JournalJune, 2020

May, 2020

Civility in a Time of Uncertainty

By Keith A. Call

As I write this from my home study on March 23, 2020, our community and world are in the midst of turmoil caused by the rapidly spreading coronavirus. Home offices have sprung up everywhere as we are being encouraged to stay home and avoid gatherings of more than ten people. Hearings, depositions, and mediations are being canceled. Court operations are being scaled back to only the most essential functions. We have all seen store shelves emptied of food and supplies, especially toilet paper, as people prepare to hunker down. And before we had any opportunity to get used to any of these ideas, people along the Wasatch Front were rattled by a moderately-sized earthquake.

It is an experience unprecedented in our lifetimes. As a community, there is a sense that we all hope things quickly improve, but we fear it may be worse before it gets better. By the time this article is published in early May, there is little doubt that things will have changed dramatically, either for better or worse, from what they are at the time of this writing.

What do the Utah Standards of Professionalism and Civility teach us for times like this? I dusted off a copy, read through it, and here are a few ideas.

Preamble and Standard No. 1 – Be Nice and Watch Out for Each Other

The Preamble includes the...