Can We Share Documents with Family of Our Former Client?

When a former client becomes incapacitated, we might hear from family members asking that we share documents and offer legal advice. We might take a little time to figure out what we can share and what additional information we might need to get. If our original client (the one who signed the documents) is still alive, we might not be able to give legal advice to their trustee/agent. We wrote about this issue last week in our newsletter/blog post. But it’s nuanced enough that we wanted to talk about the issue as well. As we explain here, there are really two separate issues. First, we may have confidences and/or secrets that we will need to keep private. And second, there may be a conflict of interest that prevents us from giving any legal advice. The second problem (the conflict of interest) goes away on the death of our former client. So if you call to let us know that our client has died, and to seek legal counsel, at least we won’t have the conflict concern to deal with. When we can’t help, we’ll try to get you to a good lawyer who can offer legal advice. Just don’t expect us to shift from representing your parent/sibling/child to representing you as fiduciary — at least not while they’re still alive. And we need to analyze whether we can share documents in the meantime.