# Is an attorney legally allowed to do this?



## ironpony (Jun 24, 2018)

For my story, a member of a gang is arrested and charged with offenses.  The leader of the gang, wants his member to have an attorney so he hires an attorney and sends him down to represent the member.  Now the member is going to tell the lawyer about the case and everything.  However, the leader is going to want to know from the attorney he hired, everything that the member told the police and what not.  So is the attorney legally okay for telling the leader what his member told the police?  Or is the attorney allowed to discuss specifics of the case, of what the police know, and how much dirt they have on him and possibly the rest of the gang?

Or if a gang leader hires an attorney to represent one of his members, is that attorney legally obligated to keep his mouth shut to the person who hired him, if that person is not the defendant?


----------



## Ralph Rotten (Jun 24, 2018)

His client is the guy paying the bills.


----------



## Ralph Rotten (Jun 24, 2018)

And even if it's not legal, what's to stop them from doing it?  Lookit the stuff Michael Cohen is suspected of doing.


----------



## ironpony (Jun 24, 2018)

Well why would they do it if it was illegal?  I need a reason for my lawyer to take the risk, I guess, since he's just an attorney, doing a job, like any other, and do not really have a motive for him to do something illegal.  Like if the motive is more money, then I could go with that, but I need to know if it's illegal in the first place.

Plus if an attack happens on the gang member, would the police think that the lawyer tipped off the leader, and the lawyer would be pulled from the defending the gang member then?  Or would he still be allowed to defend him in court?


----------



## Phil Istine (Jun 26, 2018)

ironpony said:


> Well why would they do it if it was illegal?  I need a reason for my lawyer to take the risk, I guess, since he's just an attorney, doing a job, like any other, and do not really have a motive for him to do something illegal.  Like if the motive is more money, then I could go with that, but I need to know if it's illegal in the first place.
> 
> Plus if an attack happens on the gang member, would the police think that the lawyer tipped off the leader, and the lawyer would be pulled from the defending the gang member then?  Or would he still be allowed to defend him in court?



Why not base the story in a fictional country that doesn't exist in the real world?  That way, you wouldn't have to concern yourself about who's allowed to do what to whom, because you may make up your own rules as you go.


----------



## Underd0g (Jun 26, 2018)

I think the client is the client. I think this does a good job:

http://lprb.mncourts.gov/articles/Articles/When a Friend or Relative Pays the Client's Legal Fee.pdf


----------



## ironpony (Aug 4, 2018)

Okay thanks, I read it over, but one thing I am not clear about is, how much information about the case, is the lawyer allowed to tell the person paying the bills, if the person paying the bills wants status reports on the case?

Can the person paying the bills tell the lawyer "I want all the information you have on this case, and want to know what is going on and what is being uncovered during the process"?  And can the lawyer's client give consent to the person paying, to know all that information on the case?


----------

