Alt text: PSA with flowers in shades of yellow and orange: "PSA: ADDING YOUR LAWYER TO A GROUP CHAT DOES NOT MAKE IT PRIVILEGED," Signed, Eliza Orlins, career public defender.
Hey, thanks for adding alt text! Bsky has a setting that you may want to use, so that you can’t forget the alt text: Settings → Accessibility → Require alt text before posting.
(Also, thanks for the content of the original post and especially thank you for your work as a public defender!)
For a conversation to be protected by attorney-client privilege, it has to be a confidential communication between the client and their lawyer for the purpose of seeking or providing legal advice. 2/x
Once you’re chatting in a group—especially with non-lawyers—it’s no longer confidential. Courts have consistently ruled that privilege doesn’t apply in those scenarios.
People think tossing a lawyer in the mix is a magic shield. It’s not. 3/x
Actually, it apparently does in San Diego: the San Diego county sheriffs office added an atty to the council responsible for investigating the death rate in county jails (which is damn high), and used that as a reason to restrict access to all the records of investigations into inmate deaths.
Well, haven’t you figured out that there’s the law, and then there’s The Law? There’s the justice system and then there’s Rich People’s justice system.
But pretty sure also having your wife at meetings/ in the chat also doesn't mean it is covered under spousal privilege either. (not a lawyer, just law curious)
Wait, so this isn’t a privileged venue even though you’re a lawyer?
I was going to make up a fake crime to put here to finish the joke, but I don’t trust law enforcement not to use it against me even though it would be an obvious joke…
That would be an updated Perry Mason bit. He always had his “confidential secretary” in his client meetings. That would negate attorney client privilege in real life.
Hubby and I watched every episode. We turned them into a drinking game and sipped whenever he or hamburger made a nonsensical objection or said, “If it please the court…”
Doesn’t the lawyer, as an officer of the court, have a DUTY to report a crime that he witnessed? And this was, in fact, criminal behavior, on multiple levels.
Comments
(Also, thanks for the content of the original post and especially thank you for your work as a public defender!)
People think tossing a lawyer in the mix is a magic shield. It’s not. 3/x
*Either as an established organization *or* as a coalition of orgs and/or individuals, where everyone included is staff or volunteer for the purpose
It's a conflict for a lawyer to be representing two people who have materially different interests.
I was going to make up a fake crime to put here to finish the joke, but I don’t trust law enforcement not to use it against me even though it would be an obvious joke…