Privileged Communication: Unlocking the Secrets of Protection and Responsibility
Privileged communication represents interactions between two parties where the law acknowledges a private, protected relationship. The essence of these communications must remain confidential, and authorities cannot compel their disclosure. Breaking this confidentiality can result in significant legal ramifications unless a party chooses to waive this privilege intentionally or otherwise. Commonly, privileged communication includes the relationships of attorney-client, doctor-patient, therapist-client, and priest-parishioner relationships.
Key Insights
- Privileged communication safeguards the confidentiality of exchanges between two legally recognized parties.
- This protection commonly applies to relationships such as attorney-client, doctor-patient, priest-parishioner, married couples, and sometimes, reporter-source relationships in specific jurisdictions.
- The protective shield of privileged communication shatters in cases involving harm or threats to people.
How Privileged Communication Functions
Aside from the common attorney-client and healthcare provider-patient dynamics, privileged communication also covers relationships between spouses, accountants and their clients, and journalists and their sources in some locales.
In these professional scenarios, the right to confidentiality belongs to the client, patient, or penitent. The professional is bound to uphold this privacy unless the information provider waives it. Non-compliance could lead to severe consequences like the loss of a professional license.
Key aspects of privilege between spouses include the irrevocable right that courts cannot coerce husbands or wives to reveal confidential marital communications—nor can a spouse be compelled to testify against the other. These privileges endure even after marriage ends, safeguarding marital honesty and confidentiality. Yet, it does not prevent willing testimony against the other spouse in legal proceedings.
Essential Considerations
For communication to be genuinely confidential, it must occur in a private setting where an expectation of privacy is reasonable, such as a dedicated meeting room. However, this confidentiality garden is fenced off and gains its privileged status within its boundaries only. When communications escape to a third party outside this privileged relationship, the garden gate breaks it open, ending the protective status.
Interestingly, certain associates like an accountant’s secretary or a nurse to a doctor are usually not considered third-party threats to this privileged status.
However, the shell of privileged communication cracks notably in scenarios signaling harm to others. For instance, confidentiality in doctor-patient communications lifts when the professional has grounds to suspect the patient poses harm to themselves or others. This extension applies to suspected abuse cases with vulnerable individuals like children, the elderly, or disabled people. Additionally, spousal privilege doesn’t generally apply in cases involving domestic harm or crimes that coercively entwine both spouses.
Related Terms: Confidentiality Agreement, Third Party, Attorney-Client Privilege.
