Perhaps someone in the blawging world is more knowledgable about this than I am. I have heard people saying that there have been cases coming down where talking to a client through your cell phone is sufficient (even if you are both in private locations) to destroy the attorney-client privilege. Is this truly the case?
The problem, as I see it, is that many of my friends who are criminal defense attorneys work out of their cell phone. They spend most of their day at the criminal court house going to hearings, making appearances, and meeting with their clients in the work rooms. In order to shed costs, they ditch the hanging a shingle up completely.
Instead of paying for an office and a secretary, they get a blackberry or a treo and use that phone to schedule, make to-do lists, carry contact information, and do everything that they could do with an office. Then at home they have a little office made out of a spare room where they keep the current files. Eveything else is put into storage.
They are screwed if they can't take client phone calls over their cell phones. Perhaps this is just a nasty room that isn't based in fact. Anyone know?
Friday, September 23, 2005
Cellular Phones and Professional Responsibility
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2 Comments:
I have friends who attend NYU Law who are in constant debate over this issue.
Cell phones--what a mess.
By 
MLB, at
9:59 PM, September 25, 2005
The key is 'reasonable expectation of privacy', right? You would think, and certainly argue that it is perfectly reasonable to expect privacy when both parties are talking in private locations. I think even restaurants count as private.
By 
, at
12:04 AM, September 26, 2005
