If you pay for someone else’s legal fees have you ever wondered who does the attorney represent?
We can see these issues come up sometimes in criminal cases, or even family law cases.
Does the person paying the legal fees have any say so in the case, or to put it another way, does the attorney client privilege also stretch to this person?
One of the reasons why we are talking about this important issue in this educational video is because there seems to be a lot of confusion surrounding the issue.
IF YOU PAY SOMEONE ELSE’S LEGAL FEES WHY IS ATTORNEY CLIENT PRIVILEGE IMPORTANT?
One of the corner stones of the attorney client privilege deals with the fact that what is said to the attorney cannot be revealed to anyone.
This is important because it allows the client to freely open up to the attorney and divulge important facts of the case.
If clients fear that they cannot speak freely to their attorney, then they are more likely to not open up, or they even may fabricate parts of the facts.
If you pay for someone else’s legal fees you have to understand the attorney client privilege.
SO WHO DOES THE ATTORNEY OWE A DUTY TO?
If you pay for someone else’s legal fees in Maryland, you have to understand that the client is the person who you are paying the legal fees on behalf.
This means that principles like the attorney client privilege will not cover the person paying the legal fees.
In addition, the attorney will have to listen to the wishes of the client, even though someone else is paying.
For some people this can be a hard issue to understand because they feel that since they are paying, they are the ones who should have say about how the case works.
