Essay on "Ethics, Religion, and Confidentiality in the Law"

Essay 5 pages (2092 words) Sources: 1

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Trust and breaches of trust form a cornerstone of Islam, so that the keeping of secrets becomes a moral obligation. As a result, the keeping of secrets and confidentiality of client information becomes critical from a moral standpoint, not just an ethical standpoint, for Muslim attorneys.

What can be more complicated for an attorney is dealing with the repercussions of shared information that does not fall under an exception to confidentiality. For example, an attorney generally has no right to share information about a harm done to others if there is not threat of a continuing harm, unless the attorney somehow participated in that harm. In some situations, the failure to share information could result in continuing harm. Take, for example, an attorney who defends a murderer where the bodies have not been located. The client reveals the location of the bodies to the attorney, but does not share that information with the police or with family members. The attorney is aware that not knowing the location of the victims' bodies is a source of ongoing pain for the families. The families may even approach the attorney and ask him or her to find out the location of those bodies so that the families may bury them in accordance with their own religious traditions. Even if revealing the location of the bodies would not place the client in any additional jeopardy, for example, if the client had already been acquitted or convicted of the crimes, if the client will not permit the attorney to share the information, ethical rules prohibit the sharing of information. This is a scenario that would place the attorney's religious beliefs in direct conflict with ethical obligations, especially if the attorney practiced Judaism, which places an emphasis, not only on compassion but also considers it a mitzvah to help people move towards healing. In fact, almost all religions contain a dictate of compassion, and, if sharing information would not work a harm against a client, it seems difficult to understand why confidentiality would be important. As a result, it may be impossible for an attorney to reconcile personal religiously-derived moral beliefs with the dictates of ethical rules.

Because every attorney has the potential of facing a scenario in which ethical rules and moral values will conflict in a way that cannot be resolved, an attorney has to be prepared to deal with such conflict. An attorney could decide, for example, to violate ethical principles in favor of moral principles, accepting whatever punishment would come as a result of those violations. In those instances, the attorney will face another ethical dilemma. The promise of confidentiality is not just implied, but an overt promise to the client. Does an attorney who will violate confidentiality on moral or ethical grounds, even if not required by law to do so, have a moral duty to warn clients of this intention? If so, such a warning would seem sufficient to cover the attorney's moral and ethical dictates, because it would provide the client with ample warning regarding confidential information that might be revealed.

References

American Bar Association. (2014). Rule 1.6: Confidentiality of information. Retrieved April

29, 2014 from http://www.americanbar.org/groups/professional_responsibility/publications/model_rules_of_professional_conduct/rule_1_6_confidentiality_of_information.html

Griffin, L. (1998). The relevance of religion to a lawyer's work: Legal ethics. Retrieved April

29, 2014 from Fordham Law Review website: http://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3437&context=flr READ MORE

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