State Bar of California Standing Committee on Professional Responsibility and Conduct Formal Opinion 2005-168
Topic: Website disclaimer
Digest of the Committee:
“A lawyer who provides to web site visitors who are seeking legal services and advice a means for communicating with him, whether by e-mail or some other form of electronic communication on his web site, may effectively disclaim owing a duty of confidentiality to web-site visitors only if the disclaimer is in sufficiently plain terms to defeat the visitors’ reasonable belief that the lawyer is consulting confidentially with the visitor. Simply having a visitor agree that an ‘attorney-client relationship’ or ‘confidential relationship’ is not formed would not defeat a visitor’s reasonable understanding that the information submitted to the lawyer on the lawyer’s web site is subject to confidentiality. In this context, if the lawyer has received confidential information from the visitor that is relevant to a matter in which the lawyer represents a person with interests adverse to the visitor, acquisition of confidential information may result in the lawyer being disqualified from representing either.”
Rules: Evidence Code sections 917(b), and 951
The full text is available at http://ethics.calbar.ca.gov…