I’m in crisis and need immediate support

If you or someone you know need immediate mental health support, call Lifeline crisis support on 13 11 14.

In an emergency, call 000.

If you are considering making a disclosure, we recommend that you work through the following steps.

1. Ask yourself why you are disclosing the information

Identify who you are trying to assist:

• your client (e.g. by disclosing the contents of a medical report as part of proceedings)
• yourself (e.g. to obtain ethics advice or comply with a legislative obligation)
• a third party (e.g. to prevent serious imminent harm to them).

This will help you to determine which exception under rule 9.2 applies. 

Rule 9.2.6 allows you to disclose confidential information to your professional indemnity insurer. This usually occurs when there is a client claim against you (or a potential circumstance that may give rise to a claim). 

Your professional indemnity insurance policies or law firm policies may require you to make a disclosure, but you can only disclose under this exception to the extent required by those policies. To this end, we recommend that you review and consider these policies carefully, when considering whether a disclosure is permitted. 

Rule 9.2.5 permits (but does not compel) you to disclose confidential information for the purpose of preventing imminent serious physical harm to your client or to another person. 

General considerations

It is clear from the language of the exception that:

Rule 9.2.4 allows (but does not compel) you to disclose confidential information for the sole purpose of avoiding the probable (i.e. likely) commission of a serious criminal offence. 

Rule 9.2.3 allows you to disclose confidential information in a confidential setting, for the sole purpose of obtaining advice in connection with your legal or ethical obligations. 

You must be genuinely seeking assistance in the client’s interest, not engaging in ‘frivolous or promiscuous revelation’ of the confidential information or an opportunity to gossip (McKaskell v Benseman [1989] 3 NZLR 75, 88). Mixed purposes (e.g. financial reporting) will not fall under this exception.

Rule 9.2.1 provides an exception to the duty of confidentiality where your client has expressly or impliedly authorised a disclosure. 

As a lawyer, you owe a duty of confidentiality to your clients not to disclose their confidential information. There are very limited exceptions to this general duty.

The duty of confidentiality is at the heart of the lawyer-client relationship. It is also fundamental to the effective operation of the justice system.