Report comment

Please fill in the form to report an unsuitable comment. Please state which comment is of concern and why. It will be sent to our moderator for review.

Comment

It can be very hard. I was once in the position where a client of mine told me that he knew where the social worker in the Care case related to his children lived because he had follwed her home, and that if she did not allow him contact he would 'do her'
I knew him to be very volatile, he had a history of violent offences and he habitually carried a knife.
When I contacted the Ethics helpline for advice I was told that I was not obliged to disclose what he had said (becuase the person he was threatening wasn't a child or vulnerable person!) and that it was up to me to decide - they wouldn't give nay specifc guidance.
I spoke with the firm's senior partner and we did diclose the threat to the individual concerned, and then informed the the client that we had done so.

As it turned out, he had made the same threat to someone else, who had already told the social worker, but it was a very dificult situation.

We made the decision on the basis that, on the information avialable to us, there was a genuine and fiarly high risk that a criminal offence would be committed and that the offence would be likely to cuase very serious harm or death. On a more human level, I felt that I would rather take my chaces with the Law Society than have blood on my hands through staying silent.

with a difernet individual my decidion might have been different, .

In the specifc case of a threatened terrorist attack I would probably also be dping a hasty review of the terrorism act to check whether there are any specifc provisions relating to (planned) acts of terror, as oppsoed to 'ordinary' criminal acts. After all, ifour duty of confidentiality is over-ridden by specific rules relating to funding of terrorsim, it seems likely that that may also apply to actual palnned acts of terrorism. But I don't know for sure, and would be looking for guidance if the situation came up.

Your details

Cancel