How Can Attorney/Client Privilege Be Waived?

If you have an attorney who is worth his salt, then he probably will tell you what you can and can’t do regarding attorney/client privilege. The attorney/client privilege is sacred, and can never be broken, unless the client waives that right, either knowingly or unknowingly. There are certain circumstances in which the attorney/client privilege no longer applies, and clients should be careful about what they say or do.

Attorney/Client Privilege: Never bring someone else into a meeting.

Any meeting that a client holds with his or her attorney is considered privileged unless the defendant brings in a third party to the meeting. For example, let’s say that Anne wants to bring her son to a meeting with her attorney for moral support. If the prosecutor is made aware of the arrangement, he or she can question Anne’s son in court as to the context of that meeting.

Attorney/Client Privilege: Conversations in public.

The attorney/client privilege only applies to conversations that take place in private. If you and your attorney are having a loud conversation in a restaurant or a park, and someone else overhears the substance of that conversation, then he or she can tell the prosecutor what was said. Likewise, if the prosecutor knows about the conversation, he or she can question the defendant about that conversation on the stand.

Attorney/Client Privilege: Prison phone monitoring.

Some prisons monitor (record) all ingoing and outgoing telephone calls, which means that if a suspect calls his or her attorney on the phone, and the conversation is recorded, the prison can submit the recording of the conversation to the prosecutor. This only applies if the suspect is informed of the phone monitoring practice. Otherwise, the conversation is considered an expected right to privacy.

Attorney/Client Privilege: Talking about the conversations to someone else.

This is often called the “blabbermouth” syndrome, and it’s a bad idea for suspects of a crime. If you have a conversation with your attorney, and then reveal the substance of that conversation to your best friend, the conversation is no longer privileged. The only instance in which this does not apply is conversations between a husband and wife.

The best thing that you can do when it comes to the attorney/client privilege is to do your best to keep all conversations as private as possible. Don’t have them in public, don’t discuss them with friends, don’t bring in anyone else and don’t use monitored prison phones. Your attorney should do his best to make sure that the privilege is maintained, but he or she cannot control what you do outside of the office or prison.