Just a word to new law students and lawyers, about attorney-client privilege: People try to say that when a person confesses to his defense attorney, that will lead to more crime. Violence, etc. Read that carefully: that that event itself, confessing to your lawyer, somehow leads to crime. The fact an attorney can't rat his client out for what he did. Even some people SCOTUS have said that, in their opinions. And in all of human history, that has never happened even once. When a person confesses to any crime he did, the goal is to minimize the harm. And help him or his family at that point. There is the matter of reoffending. And that actually happens less likely than people think. Sex crimes often have a very low reoffending rate. Exhibitionism and bisexual child molestation have unusually high rates, I've heard. Actually many or most cases of child molestation are done by relatives anyways. In short, when people do a serious crime, it usually happens just once in their lifetime. My pocket law dictionary ("Law Dictionary" by Steven H. Gifis) talks about "proposed" future crime, that a client tells an attorney about. That of course isn't covered by attorney-client confidentiality. When it comes to proposed future action, the dictionary says, only if the harm the client will do is serious. It also says the time the book was written (1991), this was controversial. (I am confused, actually what they mean by "serious". I wonder what minor harm would be. I'm serious.) It was in the lawyer code of ethics. And it was controversial in 1995, when I got the book, as I said. So things may have changed. I don't know. Also, our probate lawyer KS, told us something interesting once. Defense lawyers are a totally different breed. KS was always so charming and philosophical. Defense attorneys are much more tough, he told us. They have to be. Clients sometimes attack them, for no reason. Sometimes even in their offices. I also think they are better at uncovering deceit, possibly more than even the police perhaps. A while back, there was this controversy. There was this device lawyers attached to their phones, that registered emotion in the voice. They were using it detect lies. But like one attorney told me on Facebook. When a crime has been committed, sometimes it is the accused's family that needs comforting at that moment. And, even the accused himself.
