An Arizona attorney was suspended for two months after he used a videoconferencing program’s chat function to coach a client how to answer questions on cross-examination during a virtual dissolution trial.

Ryan Patrick Claridge, an attorney at Modern Law in Mesa, Arizona, represented a client in a dissolution matter in Maricopa County Superior Court. In September 2020, Judge Suzanne Marwil oversaw the virtual trial using the videoconferencing software GoToMeeting.