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Attorney Client Privilege - Law Dictionary Search Results

Home Dictionary Name: attorney client privilege

attorney-client privilege

attorney-client privilege the doctrine that ensures that communications between an attorney and his or her client remain confidential and that the attorney cannot be compelled to disclose them. Source: Federal Judicial Center ...


Accountant-client privilege

Accountant-client privilege, means protection afforded to a client from an accountant's unauthorising discloser of materials submitted to or prepared by the accountant, Black Law Dictionary, 7th Edn., p. 1215....


privilege

privilege [Latin privilegium law affecting a specific person, special right, from privus private + leg- lex law] 1 : a right, license, or exemption from duty or liability granted as a special benefit, advantage, or favor: as a : an exemption from liability where an action is deemed to be justifiable (as in the case of self-defense) or because of the requirements of a position or office ;also : the affirmative defense that an action is privileged compare excuse absolute privilege : a privilege that exempts a person from liability esp. for defamation regardless of intent or motive ;specif : a privilege that exempts high public officials (as legislators) from liability for statements made while acting in their official capacity without regard to intent or malice qualified privilege : a privilege esp. in the law of defamation that may be defeated esp. by a showing of actual malice called also conditional privilege b : an exemption from a requirement to disclose information (as fo...


Privileged communication

Privileged communication, a communication which a witness cannot be compelled to divulge, such as that which takes place between husband and wife (see the (English) Evidence Amendment Act, 1853 (16 & 17 Vict. c. 83), s. 3, and Criminal Evidence Act, 1898 (61 & 62 Vict. c. 36), s. 1), between a client and his legal adviser, and which cannot be disclosed without the client's consent; secrets of State, etc. See also CONFESSION. Also a communication which cannot be made the ground of an action for defamation, either (a) absolutely, or (b) without a malicious motive, such as that which is made truthfully and bona fide by a master respecting the character of a servant to a person intending to employ him. Incidental publication will not affect the privilege, Edmondson v. Birch, (1907) 1 KB 371; consult Odgers on Libel. See LIBEL....


Attorney

Attorney [fr. tourne, Fr., or fr. attornatus, Medieval Lat., substituted], one who is appointed by another to do something in his absence, and who has authority to act in the place and turn of him by whom he is delegated. He is of two kinds.(1) Attorney at Law was a public officer belonging to the Superior Courts of Common Law at Westminster, who conducted legal proceedings on behalf of others, called his clients, by whom he was retained: he answered to the Solicitor in the Courts of Chancery, and the Proctor of the Admiralty, Ecclesiastical, Probate, and Divorce Courts. An attorney was almost invariably also a solicitor. The name 'Solicitor' was provided by the (English) Judicature Act, 1873, s. 87. The (English) Judicature Act, 1925, s. 215(2) provides that references in any enactment to solicitors, attorneys or proctors shall be construed as references to solicitors of the Supreme Court. see SOLICITORS.(2) Attorney in Fact, including all agents employed in any business or to do any ...


Advocate

Advocate, [Lat. Advocatus], a patron of a cause assisting his client with advice, and pleading for him. He is defined by Ulpian (Dig. 50, tit. 13) to be any person who aids another in the conduct of a suit or action. The term is at the present day confined to persons professionally conducting cases in Court, i.e., Barristers and Solicitors (q.v.).In the English Ecclesiastical and Admiralty Courts, until 1857, certain persons learned in the civil and canon law, called advocates, had the exclusive right of acting as counsel. They were members of a college situate at Doctor's Commons, incorporated by charter, June 22, 8 Geo. 3, under the title of 'The College of Doctors of Law exercent in the Ecclesiastical and Admiralty Courts,' and had, previously to their admission to that college, taken the degree of Doctor of Laws at an English university. The jurisdiction of the Ecclesiastical Courts in matters matrimonial and testamentary was in 1857 transferred to the Court for Divorce and Matrimo...


ineffective assistance of counsel

ineffective assistance of counsel :representation of a criminal defendant that is so flawed as to deprive the defendant of a fair trial [claimed ineffective assistance of counsel following his conviction] called also ineffective assistance NOTE: Ineffective assistance of counsel is a violation of the guarantee of the assistance of counsel that is provided in the Sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. A claim of ineffective assistance of counsel may be brought as a result of government interference with the attorney-client relationship that precludes effective representation, as when an informant is present during conversations between the attorney and the defendant. The existence of a conflict of interest on the part of the attorney may also be the basis for a claim. Most claims are, however, based on the attorney's failure to provide competent representation. Competent representation does not require the best representation, only a performance that is reasonable under prevailin...


Privilege

Privilege, a privilege is the opposite of a duty, and the correlative of 'no-right', Isha Valimohamad v. Haji Gulam Mohamad and Haji Dada Trust, AIR 1974 SC 2061 (2065): (1974) 2 SCC 484: (1975) 1 SCR 720. [Bombay Rents Hotels and Lodging House Rates (Control) Act, 1947 s. 51(1)(ii)]An exceptional or advantage; an exemption from some duty, or attendance, to which certain persons are entitled, from a supposition of law, that the stations they fill or the offices they are engaged in, are such as require all their care; and that, therefore, without this indulgence, it would be impracticable to execute such offices so advantageously as the public good requires.The separate privileges of either House of Parlia-ment are extensive, but they are at the same time uncertain and indefinite. Amongst those privileges are, the power of committing persons to prison; the power of publishing matters which, if not issuing from such high authority, might become the subject of proceedings in a Court of la...


Attorney-General

Attorney-General, a great officer of state appointed by letters-patent, and the legal representative of the Crown in the Supreme Court. He is also ex-officio head of the bar for the time being. He exhibits informations, prosecutes for the Crown in criminal matters and in revenue causes, and used to grant fiats for writs of error until they were abolished by s. 20 of the (English) Criminal Appeal Act, 1907, His fiat or consent is required before certain proceedings or prosecutions can be commenced (see, e.g., (English) Public Bodies Corrupt Practices Act, 1889, and Prevention of Corruption Act, 1906). In many cases also (see e.g., (English) Lunacy Act, 1890, s. 325; (English) Public Health Act, 1936, s. 298; (English) Public Health (Officers) Act, 1884; (English) Public Health (Members and Officers) Act, 1885; Official Secrets Act, 1911, s. 8), his consent is necessary before penalties can be recovered. His fiat is necessary for certain appeals to the House of Lords. See (English) Appel...


Client

Client [fr. cliens, Lat., said to contain the same element as they verb clueo, to hear of obey, and accordingly compared by Niebuhr with the German word hoeriger, a dependent], a person who seeks advice of a lawyer or commits his cause to the management of one, either in prosecuting a claim or defending a suit in a Court of justice; and for meaning, the word (except in relation to non-contentious business) includes any person who as principal or on behalf of another person retains or employs, or is about to retain or employ, a solicitor, and any person who is or may be liable to pay a solicitor's costs (English) (Solicitors Act, 1932 (22 & 23 Geo. 5, c. 37), s. 81). The relation between solicitor and client is a highly confidential one, and the power which his situation gives the former over the latter makes it impossible to be perfectly assured, in certain cases, whether in their transactions the client is a free agent, or under influence and imposition. A Court of Equity, therefore, ...


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