Render illustration of Attorney-Client Privilege Title On Legal Documents<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nWhat\u2019s the background?\u00a0 A lawyer disciplinary hearing was looking into whether<\/p>\n
a former prosecutor improperly caused an attorney testifying before a grand jury to disclose privileged communications.\u00a0 As described in a Pennsylvania Superior Court decision regarding the underlying case, \u201ca significant number of the Commonwealth’s questions to [the testifying attorney] before the grand jury implicated potential confidential communications.\u201d<\/p>\n
Former Chief Justice Ronald Castille was called as an expert witness to support the accused attorney and claimed that if a client lies the attorney-client privilege does not apply.\u00a0\u00a0 As the Inquirer reported on August 2, 2018:<\/p>\n
The former chief justice said Spanier and former administrators Tim Curley and Gary Schultz had stonewalled Baldwin when she asked them about Sandusky as she gathered information to respond to subpoenas to the university. Their lies stripped them of their right to invoke the attorney-client privilege to keep Baldwin silent, Castille told the board.<\/p>\n
\nCastille testified that \u00a0\u201cYou can\u2019t lie to your lawyer and expect that lawyer to be your counsel…It\u2019s as simple as that.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s not the law.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Sadly, whether due to fear, distrust, ignorance, embarrassment or other factors, people lie to their lawyers (and their physicians and their priests).\u00a0 But those conversations are still 100% privileged.\u00a0 A lawyer may only disclose client communications that involve plans to commit a crime in the future.<\/p>\n
The expert testimony ignored how fundamental the need to protect communications is.<\/p>\n
[T]he attorney-client privilege is intended to foster candid communications\u2026so that counsel can provide legal advice based upon the most complete information possible from the client. The historical concern has been that, absent the\u2026privilege, the client may be reluctant to fully disclose all the facts\u2026if these facts may later be exposed to public scrutiny.<\/p>\n
Who wrote those words?\u00a0 Ronald Castille, when he was on the Court.<\/p>\n
So it\u2019s not \u201cas simple as that.\u201d\u00a0 Attorney-client private communications are privileged \u2013 and lying doesn\u2019t take that away.\u00a0 A former Chief Justice should know that.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
If a client tells a lie to her\/his lawyer, is that communication still privileged? The answer is indisputably \u201cyes,\u201d and if a report in the Philadelphia Inquirer (http:\/\/www.philly.com\/philly\/news\/breaking\/ex-state-chief-justice-backs-embattled-former-state-prosecutor-20180801.html)\u00a0 is accurate a former State Supreme Court Justice got that question wrong. What\u2019s the background?\u00a0 A lawyer disciplinary hearing was looking into whether a former prosecutor improperly<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3,6,7,11],"tags":[],"coauthors":[238],"class_list":["post-2220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-advocacy","category-advocacy-and-evidence-blog","category-criminal-law","category-evidence","category-trial-advocacy"],"yoast_head":"\n
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