On February 9, 2026, the American Bar Association adopted Resolution 100, which amended the Model Rule of Professional Conduct for Rule 1.14 for representing Clients with Diminished Capacity (now “Clients with Decision-Making Limitations”). The amendments represent a foundational step forward in tackling the discrimination and bias people with disabilities experience when accessing legal counsel to exercise their legal capacity. The amendments make critical changes to the rule and comments including:
- Replacing the term “client with diminished capacity” with more modernized language “clients with decision-making limitations.”
- Recognizing that decision-making limitations are situational in nature and can vary across time.
- Naming Supported Decision-Making as an accommodation that can help enhance a client’s decision-making ability and eliminate or alleviate concerns about a client’s capacity to make legal decisions.
- Recognizing that clients with cognitive disabilities, including intellectual and mental health disabilities, are capable of making legal decisions.
- Directing attorneys to recognize their obligations to ensure effective communication with their clients and provide the necessary accommodations to do so.
- Encouraging attorneys to explore less restrictive forms of protective action and to keep mind that pursuing or recommending guardianship may be more intrusive than the circumstances require.
- Clarifying that attorneys can ethically represent clients who have guardians or other legal representatives in challenging the terms of that legal representative’s authority.
In 2024, CPR attorney Megan Rusciano was invited to participate in a Working Group tasked with drafting amendments to the Rule, which were proposed to the ABA in April 2025. CPR submitted comments in May 2025 and August 2025 in support of the amendments as the ABA continued to refine the proposal. You can read more about the changes and the process in this article.
For nearly 50 years, CPR has worked alongside people with disabilities to ensure that they are able to enjoy and exercise their legal rights – the ABA’s amendments represent a crucial step in doing just that!
