Browse:  A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y Z
     
Enter a Legal Term

Search the Definitions

confidential communication

n. certain written communications which can be kept confidential and need not be disclosed in court as evidence, answered by a witness either in depositions or trial, or provided to the parties to a lawsuit or their attorneys. This is based on the inherent private relationship between the person communicating and the confidant's occupation or relationship to him/her. They include communications between husband and wife, lawyer and client, physician or other medical person (most therapists) and patient, minister or priest and parishioner (or anyone seeking spiritual help), and journalist and source in some states. Moral conflicts may arise when a murderer or child molester confesses to his/her priest, who is pledged to silence and confidentiality by his priestly vows and cannot reveal the confession in legal cases.

See also: privileged communication  attorney-client privilege 



The People's Law Dictionary by Gerald and Kathleen Hill Publisher Fine Communications