Louisiana Administrative Code › Title 22 - CORRECTIONS, CRIMINAL JUSTICE AND LAW ENFORCEMENT › Part XV - Public Defender Board › Chapter 13 - Trial Court Performance Standards for Attorneys Representing Children in Delinquency-Detention through Adjudication › Section XV-1317 - Client Confidentiality

Current through Register Vol. 50, No. 6, June 20, 2024
A.
				Juvenile defense counsel is bound by attorney-client confidentiality and
				privilege. The duty of confidentiality that the attorney owes the child client
				is coextensive with the duty of confidentiality that attorneys owe their adult
				clients.
B. The attorney should
				seek from the outset to establish a relationship of trust and confidence with
				the child client. The attorney should explain that full disclosure to counsel
				of all facts known to the child client is necessary for effective
				representation and, at the same time, explain that the attorney's obligation of
				confidentiality makes privileged the client's disclosures relating to the
				case.
C. There is no exception to
				attorney-client confidentiality in juvenile cases for parents or guardians.
				Juvenile defense counsel has an affirmative obligation to safeguard a child
				client's information or secrets from parents or guardians. Absent the child
				client's informed consent, the attorney's interviews with the client shall take
				place outside the presence of the parents or guardians. Parents or guardians do
				not have any right to inspect juvenile defense counsel's file, notes,
				discovery, or any other case-related documents without the client's express
				consent. While it may often be a helpful or even necessary strategy to enlist
				the parents or guardians as allies in the case, juvenile defense counsel's
				primary obligation is to keep the child client's secrets. Information relating
				to the representation of the child client includes all information relating to
				the representation, whatever its source. Even if revealing the information
				might allow the client to receive sorely-needed services, defense counsel is
				bound to protect the child client's confidences, unless the client gives the
				attorney explicit permission to reveal the information to get the particular
				services or disclosure is impliedly authorized to carry out the client's case
				objectives.
D. In accordance with
				Louisiana Rule of Professional Conduct 1.6(b), a lawyer may reveal information
				relating to the representation of a client to the extent the lawyer reasonably
				believes necessary:
1. to prevent reasonably
				certain death or substantial bodily harm;
2. to prevent the client from committing a
				crime or fraud that is reasonably certain to result in substantial injury to
				the financial interests or property of another and in furtherance of which the
				client has used or is using the lawyer's services;
3. to prevent, mitigate or rectify
				substantial injury to the financial interests or property of another that is
				reasonably certain to result or has resulted from the client's commission of a
				crime or fraud in furtherance of which the client has used the lawyer's
				services;
4. to secure legal advice
				about the lawyer's compliance with the rules of professional conduct;
5. to establish a claim or defense on behalf
				of the lawyer in a controversy between the lawyer and the client, to establish
				a defense to a criminal charge or civil claim against the lawyer based upon
				conduct in which the client was involved, or to respond to allegations in any
				proceeding concerning the lawyer's representation of the client; or
6. to comply with other law or a court
				order.