Legal Question in Criminal Law in Virginia

Client/lawyer relation

Recently while watching a television show about lawyers, a situation arose. The client of an attorney confessed to a crime that another person was currently on trial for. If an attorney knows or suspects that his client has committed crimes that they have not been charged with are attorneys, as an officers of the court, supposed to inform the court. I'm aware that if an attorney's client is planning a crime attorneys are supposed to inform the court or is that also false information.


Asked on 12/15/02, 11:54 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys

Patrick Stiehm Stiehm Law Office

Re: Client/lawyer relation

I suspect your question really is: "If an attorney learns as a result of confidential communications from the client that the client has committed crimes that the client has not been charged with are attorneys, as an officers of the court, supposed to inform the court?"

The answer to that is no. The attorney is ethically bound in that case to keep the clients confidence.

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Answered on 12/16/02, 12:33 pm


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