Attorney Client Confidentiality
The defense is obligated to hold strictly confidential all conversations and other communications with the defendant, including all information which the defense lawyer receives from the defendant during the course of representation. The defense lawyer must pursue the representation conscientiously and without delay.The Defense attorney must keep private any information given by their client and is protected of the client’s ability to confide freely in his or her attorney.
The attorney/client privilege often prevents disclosure of information that would be relevant to a legal proceeding. Each of the following elements must exist for the privilege to apply; The person asserting privilege must be a client or someone attempting to establish a relationship as a client; The person with whom the client communicated must be an attorney and acting in the capacity as an attorney at the time of the communication; The communication must be between the attorney and client exclusively; The communication must be for the purpose of securing a legal opinion, legal services, or assistance in some legal proceeding, and not for the purpose of committing a crime or fraud; and The privilege must be claimed by the client. (Only the client may claim or waive the privilege.)
The defense is often put in a predicament where the client may reveal information about a prior crime he or she committed but the attorney cannot reveal this information based on the confidentiality that protects the client. In
Attorney Client Confidentiality which a major concern to me is that lawyers in America may be aware of a lot of crimes that their clients committed in which an innocent person is in jail right now serving time for a crime they did not
