#LegalEthics #Confidentiality #Divorce #LawyerEthics
Hey everyone! 👋 So, I have a tricky situation and I’m not sure what to do. I recently contacted a lawyer about potentially getting a divorce without my spouse knowing. However, the lawyer ended up telling my spouse that I had reached out to them. Is this an ethics violation or a conflict of interest? Here’s some more details:
– I provided personal information to the lawyer about why I wanted a divorce and my spouse’s name.
– The lawyer said they couldn’t represent me because they knew my spouse, but then proceeded to inform my spouse of my contact.
Now, this lawyer is representing my spouse in the divorce proceedings. Has anyone else experienced something like this or have any advice on how to handle it?
Possible solutions to consider:
– Reach out to legal ethics boards for guidance on the situation.
– Find a new lawyer who can provide advice on the next steps in dealing with the situation.
Any thoughts or advice would be greatly appreciated! Let’s discuss. 💬 #LegalHelp #DivorceAdvice #EthicalIssues
Absolutely a huge violation. Both for disclosing information to your opponent and for getting specific case information and using it against you. Very serious. Contact the state bar. They can be pulled from the case and penalized too.
And of course get your own lawyer first and build a strategy. Make sure you have good notes.
You’re wife could have contacted them first.
I would also contact the Board of Responsibility for your state. This is an egregious violation of attorney/client privilege
I wouldn’t focus too hard of reporting them to the bar. I would anticipate they will simply take the position they didn’t realize it was the opposing party and when they did, they told them of the conflict. I doubt they would get disbarred or suspended, and if my location is a judge, it would take years before that happens.
Better bet is to tell your lawyer and have that lawyer disqualified from the case.
I’m sorry but we need more info. Did you know your spouse was friends with this attorney?
Your wife probably contacted them first.
NAL. Legal assistant.
I used to take intake phone calls, and sometimes, beyond my control, I took/received certain information about the case before figuring out that it was a conflict. We would always just conflict out right away and all was well.
The dicier thing to me would be calling the spouse to let them know the divorce is coming.
ETA we also had times where Party A knew Party B knew us somehow, and purposely called us before B did to try to create a conflict that precluded us from representing B.
The details are going to matter here.
Attorney/Client privilege attaches to conversations made to discuss representation. Attorneys also have a general duty to maintain client confidences, which again includes conversations made to discuss representation.
So if, hypothetically, the lawyer talked to you first and learned FROM YOU that you intended to divorce your wife, told you “no we won’t represent you” (for whatever reason) and then went to the wife and said “hey your husband plans to divorce you”, then that would be a huge ethical violation. They would be revealing information that was intended to be kept confidential.
OTOH, if your wife had actually already contacted them before you did, then they mostly did the right thing. But they should have shut down any conversation with you before you told them anything important. It’s possible that it was an unintentional screw up in that they started talking to you and got your information, then asked your wife’s name, and then realized “Oh shit, we already represent the other side.” And they might have merely said they knew your wife because they wouldn’t yet be permitted to tell you that she already hired them. If this is what happened I’d say they were sloppy but it’s probably not an ethical breach.