The client has committed the crime and has confessed to me the paralegal and has told me not to tell the attorney. Am I bond by attorney client privilege and or confiddentility?
Answers:
You should talk to the attorney about this because he or she needs to know this information in order to adequately represent the client. The attorney MAY report the client but has no ethical duty to do so. You are bound by attorney client privilege because the client disclosed this information in the course of seeking legal advice and representation. You, the attorney, and support staff at the office have a duty of confidentiality but may share necessary information with each other without breaking client confidences.
Yes you are bound by attorney client privilege.
The person is you BOSS's client not yours. If it were me I would let my boss know. I could be wrong. cycgrphy or Dave C would be a good one to ask on this one.
Good question.
But isn't the answer that you aren't an attorney, you don't provide an attorney service so you aren't regulated the same? By the same token if a client asked you for legal advice you aren't trained or licensed to give you don't, right?
If it were me, I'd do the morally right thing.
you should tell the attorney, but not the authorities.
You are a paralegal. I don't think you take the same oath as a licensed attorney do you?
If you do then you are bound. If you don't take the same oath and you work for the firm I'd say your obligated to share the information with them.
If you are a good paralegal I am sure you could find a way to let the attorney on the case find out for them self.
A creative Paralegal is worth their weight in gold as long as their creativity remains within the parameters of the law.
I feel you have the responsibility to tell the attorney that you work for. The confidentiality agreement I believe is between the client and your firm that you work for.
Hey, if the case takes a wrong turn and the attorney gets caught up in a bad case that maybe you could have prevented by revealing this information to him/her then you might be in trouble. Let your employer know the facts and they will take it from there.
You are obligated to tell your boss -- then let the attorney worry about the confidentiality with the client. That's not breaking confidentiality, because as a paralegal, everything you do is under the supervision and direction of an attorney. You're limiting what the attorney can do as this person's defender if your boss doesn't have all of the information. There's no such thing as paralegal-client confidentiality. He's your boss's client and you are your boss's employee. No confidentiality or priviledge exists between you and your boss, and he or she is entitled to know everything that you know.
If you're really conflicted about this, call the ethics hotline for the bar association in your area. I bet they'll tell you the same thing.
I am not sure about paralegals, but Attorneys are obligated to tell the authorities if their client is committing a crime. Attorneys are officers of the court just like a judge and prosecutor.
Because you work for the lawyer, you are also bound by attorney client privilege and confidentiality. Tell the lawyer, but you cannot tell anyone outside the firm.
The attorney client privilege and confidential information also extends to any outside contractors the attorney brings in on a case. Information generated by my environmental company is often labeled as attorney-client privileged because it is funneled through our client's attorney.
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