Legal Question in Civil Litigation in Maryland
If I had a meeting with a lawyer and he didn't take my case, yet conferred with the opposing party without my permission expressing to them that I am seeking legal assistance -is that a violation of attorney-client privilege, or another ethics rule, that should keep my information private?
1 Answer from Attorneys
If the attorney divulged information obtained from you to the opposing party that you didn't authorize him to divulge, that would be a violation of the attorney-client privilege. Even if he didn't specifically divulge anything you told him in confidence, but merely inquired about their position and indicated that you had met with him, that was improper unless you authorized him to do this. Usually an attorney would not do this if he wasn't retained by you, unless there was an understanding with you that he would try to find out what the other party's position was as a courtesy to you. You could file a complaint with the Attorney Grievance Commission, but unless there was some serious harm done to your litigation prospects by him doing this, I don't think much would come from it.