Attorney–client privilege

“ Communications between the Authority's counsel and certain outside parties The district court affirmed the magistrate judge's order compelling the Authority to disclose written documents memorializing communications between counsel for the Authority and outside parties, such as Camp Dresser, involved in investigating the need for remediation at the Site. The Authority maintains that Camp Dresser and others were agents of the Authority, and thus any communications between them and the Authority's attorneys are protected by the Authority's attorney-client privilege. ”

“ This is paying too high a price for the assurance to a juror of serenity of mind. People ex rel. Nunns v. County Court, supra.
We turn to the precedents in the search for an analogy, and the search is not in vain. There is a privilege protecting communications between attorney and client. The privilege takes flight if the relation is abused. A client who consults an attorney for advice that will serve him in the commission of a fraud will have no help from the law. He must let the truth be told. ”

“ As a leading commentator has put it: “It is not necessary that an attorney-client relation have actually existed. One who consults a lawyer with a view to obtaining professional legal services from him or her is regarded as a client for purposes of the privilege.” ”

“ If the individual desires to exercise his privilege, he has the right to do so. This is not for the authorities to decide. An attorney may advise his client not to talk to police until he has had an opportunity to investigate the case, or he may wish to be present with his client during any police questioning. In doing so an attorney is merely exercising the good professional judgment he has been taught. This is not cause for considering the attorney a menace to law enforcement. ”

“ Q. So any attorney-client privileges within the context of that information would be — the holder of that privilege is Prevezon; is that correct?
MR. LEVY: That's a legal conclusion that he's not qualified to draw.
MR. DAVIS: You don't feel that you can speak to it without their permission?
MR. LEVY: Speak to what?
MR. DAVIS: To questions that would be covered by attorney-client privilege.
MR. LEVY: I'm not sure he's qualified to answer that question.
BY MR. DAVIS:
Q. Did you work with any law firms in relation to the Trump investigation? ”

“ It seems equally clear that discovery should not nullify the privilege of confidential communication between attorney and client. But those principles give us no real assistance here because what is being sought is neither evidence nor is it a privileged communication between attorney and client. ”

“ The Court's opinion demeans the importance of the right to counsel. As a practical matter, the opinion probably will have only a slight impact on current custodial interrogation procedures. As a theoretical matter, the Court's innovative development of an "offense-specific" limitation on the scope of the attorney-client relationship can only generate confusion in the law and undermine the protections that undergird our adversarial system of justice. ”

“ Running perhaps even deeper is the desire of the profession, of courts, and of legislatures to prevent any interference with the uniquely personal relationship between lawyer and client and to maintain untrammeled by outside influences the responsibility which the lawyer owes to the courts he serves.
When an attorney is employed by an association or corporation to represent individual litigants, two problems arise, whether or not the association is organized for profit and no matter how unimpeachable its motives. ”

“ Appellants claim that their situation is similar to that of defendants whose private communications with their attorneys were revealed to the Government. In United States v. Levy, 577 F.2d 200 (3d Cir. 1978) , for example, the court held that such intrusion into the privacy of the attorney-client relationship warranted reversal of a conviction whether or not the informant's disclosure to the Government actually prejudiced the defendant. ”

“ What the lawyer has to do is to advocate or defend his client's rights, nothing more. This is his use in the community; and when he goes beyond it, he goes beyond what his client has a right to demand or he a right to give. Depend upon it, Lawrence—and you must pardon my plain utterance of what is in my mind—the lawyer who permits himself to use unfair means to gain a client's cause, will not find it a hard task to continue his client's cause year after year, in order, if possible, to swell the amount of his fees. ”

“ If an individual indicates that he wishes the assistance of counsel before any interrogation occurs, the authorities cannot rationally ignore or deny his request on the basis that the individual does not have or cannot afford a retained attorney. The financial ability of the individual has no relationship to the scope of the rights involved here. The privilege against self-incrimination secured by the Constitution applies to all individuals. The need for counsel in order to protect the privilege exists for the indigent as well as the affluent. ”

“ It is to be hoped, that the time will never come, at this or any other Bar in this country, when a poor man with an honest cause, though without a fee, cannot obtain the services of honorable counsel, in the prosecution or defence of his rights. But it must be an extraordinary—a very peculiar case—that will justify an attorney in resorting to legal proceedings, to enforce the payment of fees. It is better that he should be a loser, than have a public contest upon the subject with a client. ”

“ For, more than a judge, infinitely more than a witness, he wants protection on the ground of benefit to the public. The rule of law is that what is said in the course of the administration of the law, is privileged; and the reason of that rule covers a counsel even more than a judge or a witness. To my mind it is illogical to argue that the protection of privilege ought not to exist for a counsel, who deliberately and maliciously slanders another person. ”

“ The attorney's interest in knowing nothing is directly adverse to his client's interest in full disclosure. The result of the conflict may be a less vigorous investigation of the defendant's circumstances, leading in turn to a failure to recognize or pursue avenues of inquiry necessary to the defense. Other conflicts of interest are also likely to develop. The attorney who fears for his fee will be tempted to make the Government's waiver of fee forfeiture the sine qua non for any plea agreement, a position which conflicts with his client's best interests. ”

“ Notes
↑ The petition of the Bar Association alleged, among other things: 'That such practices result in the following: unfair agreements of retainer; maintenance by lawyers of some system of obtaining prompt information of accidents; congestion of court calendars by unworthy causes which are never intended to be brought to trial; a false conception by lawyers engaged in this practice that the relationship between attorney and client is a commercial transaction in which the interest of the client plays an unimportant part; impairment of public confidence in the Courts ”

“ When it is not the agent's duty to communicate such knowledge, when it would be unlawful for him to do so, as, for example, when it has been acquired confidentially as attorney for a former client in a prior transaction, the reason of the rule ceases, and in such a case an agent would not be expected to do that which would involve the betrayal of professional confidence, and his principal ought not to be bound by his agent's secret and confidential information. ”

“ However, an organization is not comparable to a pro se litigant because the organization is always represented by counsel, whether in-house or pro bono, and thus, there is always an attorney-client relationship.↑ Both the Senate and House Reports explain that the attorney's fee provision was intended to give citizens access to legal assistance so that they could enforce their civil rights:↑ The ABA Model Code of Professional Responsibility (1977) describes the potential conflict: "The roles of an advocate and of a witness are inconsistent ”

“ Over the years, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has compiled an exemplary record of effective law enforcement while advising any suspect or arrested person, at the outset of an interview, that he is not required to make a statement, that any statement may be used against him in court, that the individual may obtain the services of an attorney of his own choice, and, more recently, that he has a right to free counsel if he is unable to pay. ”

“ The rule which places the seal of secrecy upon communications between client and attorney is founded upon the necessity, in the interest and administration of justice, of the aid of persons having knowledge of the law and skilled in its practice, which assistance can only be safely and readily availed of when free from the consequences or the apprehension of disclosure. ”

“ That an attorney is not liable to an action for negligence, at the suit of one between whom and himself the relation of attorney and client does not exist, for giving, in answer to a casual inquiry, erroneous information as to the contents of the deed. ”

“ Reinicker, 11 Wheat. 280, 294: 'Whatever facts, therefore, are communicated by a client to a counsel solely on account of that relation, such counsel are not at liberty, even if they wish, to disclose; and the law holds their testimony incompetent.'
We are referred, however, to the case of Queen v. Cox, 14 Q. B. Div. 153, as holding the doctrine that, where a communicaton is made to counsel in furtherance of a scheme to commit a crime, the client is not entitled to the privilege. ”

“ No litigants, or intending litigants, would employ counsel if the latter were to assume the duty of extracting from their clients all their innermost thoughts with a view to revealing them to the court. The useful function of lawyers is not only to conduct litigation but to avoid it, where possible, by advising settlement or withholding suit. Thus, any rule that interfered with the complete disclosure of the client's inmost thoughts on the issue he presents would seriously obstruct the peace that is gained for society by the compromises which the counsel is able to advise. ”

“ It requires a district court to impose reasonable sanctions, including attorneys fees, when a party or attorney violates the certification standards that attach to the signing of certain legal papers. ”

“ However, if the matter for which he is authorized violates law, the client uses the services provided by the lawyer to engage in illegal activities, or the client intentionally conceals important facts concerning the case in hand, the lawyer shall have the right to refuse to defend the client or to act as agent ad litem. ”

“ Attornies must produce receipts from under the hands of council, or other persons receiving fees, if requested by their clients, or they shall not be allowed them; and attornies must give in to their clients a true bill, under their own hand-writing, of all such fees, &c. one month before any action shall be brought against their clients for the same.
“No attorney shall delay his client’s suit from any advantage to himself, or demand more than his due fees and disbursements, under pain of a fine and disability to act. ”

“ If an attorney or solicitor delays his client's suits to work his own gain or over charges his client, the client can recover his costs and treble damages and the attorney and solicitor shall be disbarred. None may be admitted to any court of the king but such as have been brought up in the same court or is otherwise well-practiced in soliciting of causes and has been found by their dealings to be skillful and honest. An attorney who allows another to use his name shall forfeit 400 shillings and be disbarred. ”

“ I find it inconsistent with a fair system of justice to throw out a litigant's case because his lawyer, due to negligence, or misunderstanding, or some other reason fails to satisfy one of many procedural time limits. If a pound of flesh is required because of negligence of a lawyer, why not impose the penalty on him and not his innocent client?
As I have previously stated, 'The filing of court papers on time is, of course, important in our court system. But lawsuits are not conducted to reward the litigant whose lawyer is most diligent or to punish the litigant whose lawyer is careless. ”

“ Our expectation was that once an attorney notified a client of a possible malpractice claim, the trial court would have the discretion to manage the case. Circle Chevrolet, supra, 142 N.J. at 293, 662 A.2d 509. On further consideration, however, we believe that the risk of the disclosure of privileged information and the generally adverse effects on attorney-client relationships outweigh any [NJ442] benefit from requiring a client to assert a malpractice claim in the pending lawsuit. ”

“ The right which it confers is something more than a mere license, revocable at the pleasure of the court. It is a right of which they can be deprived only by its judgment for moral or professional delinquency.
The oath which every attorney and counsellor is required to take on his admission briefly expresses his duties. It is substantially this: that he will support the Constitution of the United States, and "conduct himself as an attorney and counsellor of the court uprightly and according to law." ”

“ A government attorney who uses a peremptory challenge on behalf of the client is, by definition, representing the government. The challenge thereby becomes state action. It is antithetical to the nature of our adversarial process, however, to say that a private attorney acting on behalf of a private client represents the government for constitutional purposes.
Beyond "significant participation" and "traditional function," the Court's final argument is that the exercise of a peremptory challenge by a private litigant is state action because it takes place in a courtroom. ”