Attorney-Client Confidentiality: Protecting the Freedom of the Wrongfully Accused Individual

Undergraduate Honors Thesis

Citations

Citeable URL: https://scholar.colorado.edu/concern/undergraduate_honors_theses/pz50gx01d

Abstract

Attorney-Client confidentiality requires that lawyers keep their client's secrets in nearly all circumstances. The lawyer's duty to keep their client's confidences presents certain moral challenges for attorneys, particularly within the criminal law arena. Attorneys may be forced to choose between protecting their client's secrets and preventing some serious harm. This type of moral dilemma calls into question how traditional standards of morality apply to attorneys. This thesis examines the moral weight of attorney-client confidentiality, looking at a specific case wherein an attorney is representing a guilty client and has the chance to prevent an innocent individual from going to prison should the attorney choose to reveal their client's secrets. The innocent individual in this scenario is being accused of the crime that the guilty individual has committed, and thus the guilty person's counsel is able to protect the innocent's freedom should they reveal that their own client is guilty. I argue that the guilty defendant's client is morally required got break their client's confidences in order to protect the innocent individual.

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