Legal Question in Legal Ethics in California
Lawyer Revealing Confidential Case Materials to Others
Please help with this troubling situation and breach of confidentiality. An attorney sent our case's pleadings to another attorney who is not a part of our case in any way. The attorney who forwarded the case, does not represent our family directly. The case contains the names of all my family members and is highly sensitive and still in ongoing litigation. If an attorney is going to send another attorney a case as a sample to review for that type of pleading, for instance, don't they have a duty to remove the names of the individual parties so that the clients' names and details about the sensitive situation are not passed around? Isn't that the professional way to do it? Can you detail for me the ethics involved this and in attorney's discussing salient details about other people's cases, with outside parties and attorneys? This situation involving the information sharing was purely for self-aggrandizement, not to bring the other attorney on as counsel. Also, what can my family have filed in court to keep the details of the case confidential and protected? We feel terribly violated. The person who has subjected us to this embarrassment and is passing our matters around, is the attorney for my parents' successor trustee.
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Lawyer Revealing Confidential Case Materials to Others
Was it papers that were filed in Court? If so, they are not confidential.
JOEL SELIK Attorney at Law
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