Privacy, Confidentiality, and Ethics Rules
Click on the purple tabs below to learn more about these very important issues and how they impact you.
However, privacy is personal, meaning, you control it. To help you protect your privacy, we do not share ANY of your information with anyone for whom you have not previously provided clear and informed consent in writing.
If you want us to share any private information with anyone, we will discuss it with you first, including any consequences that may result, so you may make an educated, well informed decision on your own behalf. Otherwise, your private information will remain confidential between us as discussed under the My Confidentiality tab above.
Please always feel free to ask about your Privacy, and don't hesitate to call into question anything that concerns you.
If you need true discretion via secure messaging services, we can provide Encrypted Signal Messaging and Calls and Encrypted Email options as well.
As mentioned on the Home page:
The hiring of an attorney is a very important decision and should not be based solely on advertisements. To aid in your decision making process, please contact me for free, detailed information about my firm and services.
Information obtained from this website is not intended to be and is not legal advice.
To obtain legal advice you will first need to be an Engaged Client with my firm, which I will confirm with you in writing at that time.
Thus, this website and its contents are provided only as an informational resource, not legal counsel. Neither I nor this firm intend to treat as confidential any information you send via this website. And please know, such information could be used against you by us in the future. So, to protect your privacy, please do not disclose private or confidential information until we have fully discussed privacy directly over the phone.
Confidentiality is paramount, so much so that it will be the first topic we cover in our initial meeting so you understand it fully before moving forward. And, confidentiality is Your privilege, meaning you determine how you use it. We will never share anything confidential without first obtaining your clear, informed consent in writing.
All communications between the client and that client's lawyer begin with the protection of confidentiality. However, as with privacy, the client may choose to disclose confidential information, but the choice is yours and yours alone. To that end, any disclosure of your confidential information will require your informed consent in writing prior to disclosure, and will commence after you've received a full explanation of foreseeable consequences of that disclosure.
The default is no disclosure, which means what you share in confidence with us remains only between us, unless and until you decide to change it. That said, there are a few exceptions that apply, such as if you intend to cause bodily harm or death, at which time we must reveal information to the extent we believe necessary to prevent such harm.
As mentioned above, how you control your confidentiality will be the first topic we cover in our initial meeting. In that conversation we will discuss very important information about the difference between a Prospective client we have not yet but may represent, an Engaged client we currently represent, a Former client we represented in the past, and a Non-client who we do not represent.
Please feel free to raise any questions or concerns about confidentiality at any time.
Elder Law attorneys have taken these Ethics Rules one step further by creating our own Aspirational Standards, provided by the National Academy of Elder Law Attorney, or NAELA. NAELA drafted more precise rules tailored specifically to the unique considerations presented by elder law and our special clientele.
We work hard every day to do our best at maintaining and exceeding both the Florida Rules of Ethics and the NAELA Aspirational Standards as well.
If you have questions about any of the above, please call 727-231-1080.
