Rebecca Lawson, a young general-practice attorney in Vermont, expected to expand her practice when she was hired by Allan Richards to investigate a suspicious employee. Instead, she finds herself amidst national and international conspiracies, manipulations, and murder. With the help of an old colleague, Joshua Tameron, she learns that the financial security and innocent citizens of the United States are in imminent danger, and it is up to them to expose the truth. Confidential Communications is a legal thriller that takes the reader on a ride and evaluates the vulnerability of us all while witnessing the downfall of greed.

The Model Rules of Professional Conduct provides an up-to-date resource for information on legal ethics. Federal, state and local courts in all jurisdictions look to the Rules for guidance in solving lawyer malpractice cases, disciplinary actions, disqualification issues, sanctions questions and much more. In this volume, black-letter Rules of Professional Conduct are followed by numbered Comments that explain each Rule's purpose and provide suggestions for its practical application. The Rules will help you identify proper conduct in a variety of given situations, review those instances where discretionary action is possible, and define the nature of the relationship between you and your clients, colleagues and the courts.

The advent of computerized data systems, the growth of managed care, the AIDS epidemic, mandatory reporting requirements for child abuse, workplace drug testing, and various laws requiring that social workers maintain confidential communications in some situations yet disclose them in others have made confidentiality a vital, changing area of the law. Practitioners, administrators, and those studying for these professions need to know how to use these laws to protect their clients, themselves, and their agencies. Mental health practitioners need authoritative guidance in these areas when working with clients -- children as well as adults -- in both individual and group settings. Administrators must be aware of the laws that protect worker and client privacy, and those that permit legitimate access to information.

The variety and pervasiveness of confidentiality issues today is breathtaking. Not a day passes without a media report on a breach of confidentiality, a claim of attorney-client privilege, a journalist jailed for refusing to reveal a source, a medical or hospital record improperly disclosed, or a major business deal exposed by anonymous sources. In Confidence examines confidential issues that arise in various disciplines and relationships and considers which should be protected and which should not. Ronald Goldfarb organizes the book around professionals for whom confidentiality is an issue of weighty importance: government officials, attorneys, medical personnel, psychotherapists, clergy, business people, and journalists. In a chapter devoted to each, and in another on spousal privilege, he lays out specific issues and the laws positions on them. He discusses an array of court cases in which confidentiality issues played an important role and decisions were often surprising and controversial. Goldfarb also looks into the criteria that should be used when determining whether secrets must be revealed. His nuanced analysis reveals how federal government practices and technological capabilities increasingly challenge the boundaries of privacy, and his thoughtful insights open the door to meaningful new debate.

Applying the concepts of confidentiality and privilege to the professional services provided by social workers, this law note covers federal health privacy laws and regulations, state law standards, and practitioners' ethical obligations in the following areas: confidentiality requirements (including scope of confidentiality and obtaining client consent), situations in which disclosure of confidential information is required or permitted (including HIPAA exceptions to confidentiality and instances in which clients are a danger to themselves or others), and privilege and the release of client information in legal proceedings.