Legal Question in Business Law in Massachusetts
binding agreement
if an agency provides a signed agreement of participation for a free service in which the details of the service and expectations of both the service provider and the consumer of the service are provided and one of the conditions is that all information is kept confidential, even though it is VERBALLY explained that the agency is mandated to report cases of child abuse and /or neglect, is thier recourse for a consumer in a case where such a claim is made and the confidentiality is broken?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: binding agreement
Contracts can't override obligations created by statutes. Child abuse must be reported by certain people. This is required by statute. You can't contract away this obligation and you can't sue for a person who performs his statutory duty. Confidentiality is not the same as privilege. Confidentiality is not a protected status in the law.
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