Legal Question in Legal Ethics in California
Opposing Attorney Contacted Our Doctor Against Our Wishes
My wife and I are currently engaged in a legal dispute with our landlords. The major part of this dispute pertains to her health and disability. The opposing counsel requested our permission to contact her physician directly, but we expressly denied permission for this. Instead, our attorney said he would present a list of written questions from opposing counsel to my wife's doctor for written response. Opposing counsel said we were acting in ''bad faith'' by refusing permission for direct contact, and then that attorney contacted my wife's doctor anyway. We feel that this is a violation of my wife's right to privacy and an attempt to circumvent doctor-patient privilege. Do we have any recourse against this attorney?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Opposing Attorney Contacted Our Doctor Against Our Wishes
I believe the request by opposing counsel was perfectly reasonable. You may have some rights under a federal medical privacy law caled the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, commonly known as HIPAA. However, this is not one of my areas of practice. Unless the doctor actually gave out confidential information, there is no breach of the doctor-patient privilege.
If this were in litigation and you had put your wife's condition at issue, then the attorney would have the right take the doctor's deposition and subpoena her medical records. It sounds to me like you are requesting that the landlord make accomodations for her disability. If I was representing the landlord, I would ask for personal medical information to confirm the disability and evaluate what accomodations were legally required, if any.
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