When a response may effect a pending State enforcement action, OE should be consulted before EPA provides any response. When an outside communication concerns a criminal matter which has been referred to the Justice Department, EPA employees must simply refuse to provide a response. Freedom of Information Act requests for documents concerning a criminal investigation should be directed to the Office of Criminal Enforcement or the Inspector General Division in OGC, as appropriate. A lawyer is required to be truthful when dealing with others on a clients behalf, but generally has no affirmative duty to inform an opposing party of relevant facts. A misrepresentation can occur if the lawyer incorporates or affirms a statement of another person that the lawyer knows is false.
Misrepresentations can also occur by failure to act.
This Rule refers to material settlements of fact. Whether a particular statement should be regarded as material, and as one of fact, can depend on the circumstances. Under generally accepted conventions in negotiation, certain types of statements ordinarily are not taken as statements of material fact. Estimates of price or value placed on the subject of a transaction and a party's intentions as to an acceptable settlement of a claim are in this category, and so is the existence of an undisclosed principle except where nondisclosure of the principle would constitute fraud. There may be other analogous situations.