What is the test for disclosing confidential information to a lawyer?
British Columbia, Canada
The following excerpt is from Ott v. Fleishman, 1983 CanLII 489 (BC SC):
12th May 1983. McEachern C J.S.C. (orally):— Apart from an indication of future unlawful conduct I regard it as settled law that any confidential information communicated to a lawyer and received by him in his professional capacity must not voluntarily be disclosed without either the consent of his client or a direction from the court. This is made apparent in the canons of the legal ethics which require a lawyer "scrupulously" to guard and not divulge his client's secrets or confidences (Canon 3 [7]). But not all information received by a lawyer is privileged: Zielinski v. Gordon, 1982 CanLII 738 (BC SC), [1983] 1 W.W.R. 414, 40 B.C.L.R. 165 (S.C.).
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