Questions and Professional Answers

• Criminal Law Confidentiality

  What laws are there on confidentiality?What are lawyers taught in school about it?Is a lawyers confidentiality with his' or hers' client considered immorality and dishonesty?How do you personally feel abotu the matter?

• Signed Confidentiality Agreement

  If you signed a confidentiality agreement as a data recovery computer tech and found info on someones hard drive alluding to a serious crime are you leagally bound by the confidentiality agreement to not report it?

  • Re: Signed Confidentiality Agreement

    You MUST report the crime if it involves child abuse (including child porn) or abuse of the elderly. It's a crime not to report child abuse or elder abuse. Confidentiality agreements cannot prevent you from reporting criminal activity, so you are free to report it, if you desire. If the criminal activity is ongoing, you could be charged in rare circumstances as an accessory if you don't report it.

    Brent Rose
    The Orsini & Rose Law Firm
    410 Ware Boulevard, Suite 401
    Tampa (and Throughout Florida), FL 33619

• Confidentiality after death

  Is there confidentiality after death? If a patient with no will, no siblings, no spouse, and no children, commits suicide, does his therapist have the right to identify the person as a patient and discuss his case by name? If the therapist has been designated as the deceased's ''representative'' does that change concerns about confidentiality?Thanks for your assistance

  • Re: Confidentiality after death

    see California Civil Code Sections 56.10 through 56.16 at:http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/calawquery?codesection=civ&codebody=&hits=20see also:http://www.usdoj.gov/04foia/04_7_1.html

    Donald Field
    Donald L. Field, Jr., Attorney at Law
    400 Montgomery Street, 6th Floor
    San Francisco, CA 94104-1217

• Confidentiality clauses and criminal activity

  I have a question relating to confidentiality clauses in internal college hearings. If during the hearing, it is found out that the accused has committed a severe crime, like rape or murder, are the participants in the hearing not able to report the crime to appropriate law enforcement officials due to the confidentiality clause?

  • Re: Confidentiality clauses and criminal activity

    No, the public policy concerns favoring full disclosure to law enforcement of allegations of serious crimes in such a situtaion as described would necessarily trump any constraints that would ordinarily be imposed on the participants by the college's confidentiality requirements.

    Michael E. Hendrickson
    Attorney & Counsellor at Law
    211 North Union Street Suite 100
    Alexandria, VA 22314

• Confidentiality Agreement

  I have a file for a construction project that needs to be reviewed by a general contractor. My question is this: If I send a pdf of the file and attach a confidentiality agreement to the email by saying something like''By opening this email you are bound to the confidentiality agreement enclosed, would that be legal in a court of law?

  • Re: Confidentiality Agreement

    The simple answer is probably not. Have the NDA signed before you transmit the file.

    Patrick Tracy
    Patrick J. Tracy, Esq, P.E.,
    P.O. Box 93
    Garrett Park, MD 20896

• Agreement - Need Help

  Hi there, I have a question to which I am seeking answers to. How do I go about putting together a Confidentiality Agreement or NCND & Confidentiality Agreement together without disclosing the where-abouts of the premises. Seems a bit risky to let the other Broker / Buyer / Client know the address on the agreement before he signs it. He just might go ahead and see the address and not even sign the paper. It is quite difficult. Please help me out -maybe if you have the proper agreement in this case. I eventualy may have to type up a confidentiality agreement with th address of the property. (Maybe if I am allowed I can have my client sign a confidentiality agreement with no address and then make him sign another one with the address). I dont know what to do, It is so stressfull please help me. Thanks for your time.

  • Re: Agreement - Need Help

    Contact me Monday if you want me to prepare this agreement for you and discuss your options.

    David W. Nance
    DWNance.com founding member of NanceGroup.com
    5700 Magazine Street
    New Orleans, LA 70115

• Confidentiality/Non-Compete - change in work status

  I am curious if a confidentiality/non-compete agreement signed back in 2003 will still stand now given that I was full time until 2006 then changed to part-time employee. If my status changes, does the initial confidentiality agreement still hold up in court? Thanks for your help.

  • Re: Confidentiality/Non-Compete - change in work status

    The enforcement of a confidentiality agreement is always something of a roll of the dice, dependent on facts and circumstances unique to each case. A mere reduction in hours would not, in my view, be enough to render a confidentiality obligation imposed as a condition of employment unenforceable. The answer might be different, however, were an employee moved to contractor status or there was no guarantee of a specific number of hours per pay period after the change from full-time status.

    Edward Wiest
    Edward R. Wiest, PC
    81 Dana Street
    Cambridge, MA 02138-4130

• Confidentiality

  Is there an age requirement in order to be privie to Doctor Patient Confidentiality Law.

  • Re: Confidentiality

    I do not know. My guess is that if you are a minor, the doctor must disclose to the parent. The only exception to this is when it is built into the statute that allows abortions without parental consent. Bill Stern

    William Stern
    William Stern, P.C.
    24750 Lahser Road
    Southfield, MI 48033

• Picking a pre-nup atty

  What should I be asking attorneys in trying to decide who to use for a pre-nup review? (I prefer total confidentiality, so I will not ask ESQ friends for a referral...) What qualifications should I look for? Is it appropriate to ask for references? Can a pre-nup have a confidentiality cl

  • Re: Picking a pre-nup atty

    It is quite appropriate to ask any and all questions that you believe you need to have answered to make sure that you are comfortable with the attorney that you select. The attorney should be qualified in the area of both family law and have knowledge of what is required in a pre-nup. All attorneys are required to keep their client's matter confidential. Keep in mind that this advice is based purely on the little bit of information that you have given to me. There may be other factors that would change my opinion. Further, no one can rely on advice from an attorney who has not been retained. Since you have not retained an attorney in this case, you need to contact an attorney as soon as possible (either me or someone else) to discuss your matter in more detail. Only then will you be able to rely on the advice. I will be happy to assist you. However, you need to call me at 856-546-8010. If you mention LawGuru, there will be no charge for your first consultation. Good luck! Rob Gleaner

    Robert Gleaner
    Robert A. Gleaner, P.C.
    415 S. White Horse Pike
    Audubon, NJ 08106

• Facsimilies and confidentiality

  Are there any laws pertaining to the confidentiality of a facsimile?

  • Re: Facsimilies and confidentiality

    Unless you are a lawyer, nothing is confidential unless you make it so.Sending a fax blows the expectation of privacy in the business setting, as you have no control over who will see it on the receiving end and, knowing this, and chosing to do so anyway, kills the expectation.If you require confidentiality you must send the message in a way which ensures that it will be so, such as certified or registered mail.We routinely claim confidentiality in the cover pages of our faxes, but we advise clients that it is impossible to maintain such in the daily business setting and that they should expect that others will read the fax. If that is unacceptable, then use other means.Emails likewise.

    Charles Aspinwall
    Charles S. Aspinwall, J.D., LLC
    PO Bx 984
    Los Lunas, NM 87031-0984