Opinion ID: 1708811
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Attorney Client Privilege

Text: La.R.S. 13:3734.3 (West Supp.1987) provides that [n]o attorney or counsellor at law shall give evidence of anything that has been confided to him by his client.... The privilege extended in civil cases first appeared in Louisiana as article 2262 of the Civil Code of 1825 before its transfer to article 2283 of the Civil Code of 1870 and its reenactment as a revised statute in 1986. [1] The notion that the loyalty owed by the lawyer to his client disables him from being a witness in his client's case is deep-rooted in Roman law. McCormick, On Evidence, § 87, at 204 (3rd ed. 1984). This Roman tradition may have been influential in developing the attorney-client privilege, which is the oldest of the privileges for confidential communications known to the common law. 8 J. Wigmore, Evidence, § 2290 (McNaughton rev. 1961). Its purpose is to encourage full and frank communication between attorneys and their clients and thereby promote broader public interests in the observance of law and the administration of justice. The privilege recognizes that sound legal advice or advocacy serves public ends and that such advice or advocacy depends on the lawyer's being fully informed by the client. Upjohn Co. v. United States, 449 U.S. 383, 390-93, 101 S.Ct. 677, 683-84, 66 L.Ed.2d 584, 592-93 (1981). The lawyer's exemption from disclosing his client's secrets is justified on the ground that claims and disputes which may lead to litigation can most justly and expeditiously be handled by practiced experts, namely lawyers, and that these experts can act effectively only if they are advised of the facts by the parties whom they represent. Full disclosure will be promoted if the client knows that what he tells his lawyer cannot, over his objection, be extorted in court from his lawyer's lips. McCormick, supra, § 87. The privilege also promotes compliance with the law, particularly in complex areas of business law such as antitrust, securities, and tax. The attorney to whom confidences are freely expressed has a greater opportunity to learn of and counsel against potentially unlawful conduct. See Upjohn, 449 U.S. at 390, 101 S.Ct. at 683, 66 L.Ed.2d at 592; In re Horowitz, 482 F.2d 72, 81 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 414 U.S. 867, 94 S.Ct. 64, 38 L.Ed.2d 86 (1973); Davidson & Voth, Waiver of the Attorney-Client Privilege, 64 Or.L.Rev. 637, 638 (1986). Although the defendants do not question the privileged character of the attorney-client communications for the most part, they argue briefly that the communications at issue in this case were not confidential because of the presence of Mrs. Smith's accountant during her consultations with her attorney. It is of the essence of the privilege that it is limited to those communications which the client either expressly made confidential or which he could reasonably assume under the circumstances would be understood by the attorney as so intended. McCormick, supra, § 91, at 217. However, if the help of an expert or skilled person such as an accountant or interpreter is necessary to enable the client to consult the lawyer his presence does not deprive the communication of its confidential and privileged character. United States v. Kovel, 296 F.2d 918, 920-23 (2d Cir.1961); McCormick, supra, § 91, at 218. In the present case the assistance of Mrs. Smith's accountant was necessary to enable her to consult with the attorney and she could reasonably assume the attorney understood that their communications were intended to be confidential.