Professor Alberto Bernabe -
The University of Illinois-Chicago School of Law
Wednesday, November 9, 2016
One of my recent articles is now available online
My essay Through the Looking Glass in Indiana: Mandatory Reporting Child Abuse and the Duty of Confidentiality was recently published by Notre Dame and it is now available here.
Great review of the rules, law, and Committee's opinion.
The only "flaw" is that, unless I missed something, there is no acknowledgment that the opinion is a NON-binding opinion of a Committee of the ISBA. It is an informal opinion of a Committee and not the formal position of the Indiana Supreme Court. The body that makes the determination is the Indiana Supreme Court, not the State Bar. That being said, the Committee's opinion has caused a lot of discussion about the decision making process of a suspected child abuse situation among the Family and Criminal Bar of the State.
The fact that the opinion is not binding (and the confusion it creates) is mentioned just before the conclusion. Because the opinion is not binding, lawyers have the option of ignoring it, but if they do, and the court later adopts its reasoning, lawyers are taking the risk of violating the satatute, which is a misdemeanor.
Great review of the rules, law, and Committee's opinion.
ReplyDeleteThe only "flaw" is that, unless I missed something, there is no acknowledgment that the opinion is a NON-binding opinion of a Committee of the ISBA. It is an informal opinion of a Committee and not the formal position of the Indiana Supreme Court. The body that makes the determination is the Indiana Supreme Court, not the State Bar. That being said, the Committee's opinion has caused a lot of discussion about the decision making process of a suspected child abuse situation among the Family and Criminal Bar of the State.
The fact that the opinion is not binding (and the confusion it creates) is mentioned just before the conclusion. Because the opinion is not binding, lawyers have the option of ignoring it, but if they do, and the court later adopts its reasoning, lawyers are taking the risk of violating the satatute, which is a misdemeanor.
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