Cal. Rules of Prof. Conduct, rule 3.1 · Chapter 3. Advocate
Meritorious Claims and Contentions
Text — 2026 edition, as the State Bar of California publishes it (read October 22, 2026)
(a) A lawyer shall not:
(1) bring or continue an action, conduct a defense, assert a position in litigation, or take an appeal, without probable cause and for the purpose of harassing or maliciously injuring any person;* or
(2) present a claim or defense in litigation that is not warranted under existing law, unless it can be supported by a good faith argument for an extension, modification, or reversal of the existing law.
(b) A lawyer for the defendant in a criminal proceeding, or the respondent in a proceeding that could result in incarceration, or involuntary commitment or confinement, may nevertheless defend the proceeding by requiring that every element of the case be established.
Source of truth
- Edition
- 2026 edition, as the State Bar of California publishes it (read October 22, 2026)
- Official file
- https://www.calbar.ca.gov/sites/default/files/portals/0/documents/rules/Rules-of-Professional-Conduct.pdf (PDF pages 44)
- Text hash
- sha256 0df0ede41a341dd0976a490363dff45a4097770a19e4b630170f64717c6c2167
- Composed by
- rpc/build 2026-10-22: the State Bar's 2026 PDF (pages 12-71) read by two readers, PyMuPDF glyph positions and pdfminer with the PDF's tagged structure, agreeing on 834 of 843 paragraphs character for character, the other nine (paragraph boundaries only) resolved against the rendered page; 205,485 printed glyphs accounted for; the State Bar's chapter pages a third reading
Cited by 3 provisions
Provisions in this library whose text cites Cal. Rules of Prof. Conduct, rule 3.1. Each shows the citation as that text prints it.
California Rules of Professional Conduct
Procedural information only. Not legal advice and not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. Confirm the current text with the official publisher before relying on it.