File This Under The Heading “Cautionary Tale”

An attorney who had violated the duty of confidentiality has been admonished by the Vermont Professional Conduct Board.

The attorney is a solo practitioner admitted in 1986. She rents office space in a building that also houses a number of other lawyers and businesses.

She represented a husband and wife in probate and family court matters that involved their minor child.

The clients became dissatisfied and asked for their file. The attorney agreed and made arrangements for the wife to stop by and pick it up.

When the wife arrived, the attorney was not there. Her office door was locked and the client file had been left in the hallway.

The board

The clients were particularly concerned since the file contained their social security numbers and personal information concerning themselves and the minor child. It is unknown whether anyone looked inside the file, but there is no evidence that this occurred.

Respondent left the file outside her office door because she had to leave and did not want to hinder her client’s retrieval of the file at the agreed time. She did not consider the confidentiality of the file at the time she left it in the hall.

The board found that the conduct was negligent and merited an admonition.

In Vermont, an admonition does not identify the attorney by name.

Update:

I have been pondering this one a bit and have some questions/thoughts for those out there who read this blog.

I assume that it would be OK to leave the file with a support staffer in a sealed envelope marked “confidential” for the client.

Would it have violated Rule 1.6 to leave the file outside the door in a sealed marked envelope? (Mike Frisch)