Scams.

Thanks again for bringing to our attention the perils of disbursing trust funds before they are "collected."

Although the News discusses the applicable Bar rule in great detail, you left a question hanging for those of us who never took the UCC Article 3 class in law school: When is it totally safe to draw against checks deposited in our trust accounts?

I realize that clients sometimes have the need for expedient disbursement and that the rules allow us to take a "limited and acceptable risk of failure" when we disburse trust funds. I appreciate the rules' flexibility, but prefer to take zero risk.

I am prepared to educate my clients to wait whatever time is necessary to ensure the funds are good. So, how long do I have to wait? Alternatively, is there a triggering event--for example, receiving some form of confirmation from the bank--that will ensure that the funds are good?

Leo Bueno

Coral Gables

(Editor's Note: Elizabeth Tarbert, the Bar's ethics counsel, cautions that just because a bank makes funds from a deposited cashier's check available doesn't mean the check is good. It's best not to rely on money from any type of check until the bank confirms that the funds from the check have been collected, meaning the check is settled and the actual funds have been deposited in the lawyer's trust account. Forgeries can take weeks to be discovered and untangled. The bottom line is that until the bank confirms that the funds from the check have been deposited into your account, you are responsible for any money withdrawn against that check.)

I have followed the reports of attempts at scams upon lawyers over the past several years and although I have received a number of the scamming efforts from Nigeria and other foreign countries (as have some of my clients), until the last couple of weeks, I had never received a scamming effort as extensive as the one I will describe.

A couple of weeks ago a person identifying himself as Michael Hussey, allegedly the managing director for "Impact Steel" from Australia, responded to our website advertisement and asked if we would be willing to file a collection action against a local Jacksonville company. Mr. Hussey provided a copy of a purportedly signed agreement and numerous emails between himself and the local "director" of the Jacksonville company whereby the Jacksonville company admitted that it owed a refund to the Australian company of approximately $600,000.

Although I noticed that the wording of the...