Legal Expert: Attorney-Client Privilege Often Confused, Misunderstood
Follow KDKA-TV: Facebook | Twitter
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Fox News talk show host Sean Hannity is blunt.
"Michael Cohen never represented me in any legal matter," asserted Hannity.
Hannity says he never retained attorney Michael Cohen, even as Cohen told a judge in New York that Hannity was his client.
Cohen is trying to keep all his communications with his clients, including President Donald Trump, confidential, even though the U.S. Attorney in New York suspects a crime.
"Confidentiality is hallmark of attorney-client relationships," says Amy Coco, an attorney who specializes in the rules that govern attorneys and their clients.
"We want people to be able to have discussions with their lawyers that are kept confidential so that lawyers can give the clients advice," Coco told KDKA political editor Jon Delano, also an attorney.
Coco says two rules are frequently confused.
One is the rule of confidentiality, Rule 1.6 of the Code of Professional Responsibility.
Lawyers must keep their client's secrets.
"The confidentiality rule applies even if the client is dead or if the client is a former client," she says.
There are exceptions, for example, if the client lies to the court or his lawyer suspects the client's about to commit a crime.
The second rule is the attorney-client privilege, a statutory privilege codified in state law, which only a client can assert in a court case.
"The client holds the privilege and the lawyer can't be compelled to testify against the client with respect to the confidential communications," says Coco.
Only a client can insist on that privilege, not his lawyer.
So when is an attorney-client relationship created that triggers the rule of confidentiality and attorney-client privilege?
It's one thing to talk to a lawyer in a law office.
But what if you talked to an attorney at a party, at a bar, or over the hedge in your neighborhood?
Is your conversation, is your communication privileged? Is it confidential?
Don't count on it.
The key, says Coco, is whether both parties, not just one, think they are creating an attorney-client relationship.
"It really depends on what's said," she said.