Essay by David R. Katner
With the enactment of state criminal provisions against the intentional exposure of the public to HIV/AIDS, and the development of tort law creating civil liability for disclosing and failing to disclose one's HIV/AIDS status, many attorneys will find themselves caught in a dilemma when representing the interests of sexually active adolescent clients. The various state codes of legal ethics define confidentiality so as to allow counsel to reveal information about the client's medical status or the client's future criminal conduct, especially in those jurisdictions that criminalize the knowing or intentional exposure of third parties to HIV/AIDS. Counsel are left in the precarious situation of choosing between maintaining the confidences of the client and risking possible civil suits by third parties who have been exposed to HIV/AIDS by the client's conduct, or revealing the client's medical status and risking civil exposure for breach of the client's privacy. In any event, this Essay suggests that once the adolescent client's medical status is known by the attorney, counsel must attempt to resolve the ethical dilemma while maintaining their professional relationship with a client who may be emotionally unstable after learning of their own exposure to HIV/AIDS.
About the Author
David R. Katner. Professor of Clinical Law and Director of Tulane Law School's Juvenile Law Clinic.
Citation
70 Tul. L. Rev. 2311 (1996)