道德意见282

澳博app雇用有义务举报虐待儿童的社工的责任

聘请社会工作者为客户提供代理服务的澳博app必须告知客户，根据法律，社会工作者可能有义务报告涉嫌虐待或忽视儿童的情况. 澳博app应告知委托人，尽管《澳博app》要求澳博app确保其雇用的代理委托人的人员保守委托人的秘密和机密, 其他法律可能要求社会工作者报告虐待或忽视儿童.

适用的规则

• 规则1.6(信息保密)
• 规则5.3(非澳博app助理职责)

调查 

当社工收到案主虐待儿童的信息时，社工协会就其受雇的社工的义务寻求指导，或在代表案主时咨询澳博app. 在维.C. 法典§2-1352, 社会工作者和某些其他专业人员有理由怀疑发生了虐待或忽视儿童的情况，必须“立即”向大都会警察局或人类服务部的儿童保护服务处报告疑似虐待事件.¹ 该法规明确规定，一旦社会工作者知道或有合理理由怀疑发生了虐待或忽视儿童的事件，负有义务的社会工作者没有拒绝举报的自由裁量权. The statute does not include lawyers among those professionals required to report child abuse or neglect.²

询问者没有提出引起询问者的具体事实或事件. We assume that the social worker is either employed by or acting as a consultant to a lawyer or law firm in the course of its representation of a client. The inquiry also does not state whether the information about child abuse came directly from 客户端 or from another source, 但在我们看来，这种分析并不会因信息来源的不同而改变.

委员会仅限于就澳博app的职业道德发表意见，因此无法决定社会工作者根据强制性报告法所承担的义务的范围. 首先，我们关注规则1是否.哥伦比亚特区职业行为规则(“规则”)第6条授权澳博app雇用的社会工作者披露客户的机密和秘密, 第二个, 澳博app聘用社工的义务.

讨论 

作为代表客户的澳博app的雇员或顾问, 根据规则5，社工是非澳博app助理.3 .社会工作者“代表澳博app提供澳博app的服务”.规则五.3、评论[1]. 规则5.3 requires the lawyer to assure that nonlawyer assistants understand and comply with the 职业行为准则. 确保非澳博app助理遵守规则, 澳博app事务所的合伙人必须采取有效措施，合理保证其行为符合澳博app的职业义务.规则五.3(a). 

未能将这些措施付诸实施, 或者允许非澳博app助理违反《澳博app下载网》规定的义务, 如果澳博app知道员工的行为，却没有采取行动避免或减轻违规行为，是否会导致监督员工的澳博app受到纪律处分. 规则5.3(c). 此外，规则1.第6(e)条特别要求澳博app行使合理谨慎以防止雇员, 的同事, and others working for the lawyer from disclosing or using confidences and secrets of a client unless 客户端 consents or an exception applies. 

其中一项例外情况载于规则1.6(d)(2), which provides that the lawyer may reveal the confidences or secrets of a client when “required by law.“这一规定延续了前纪律规则DR 4-101(C)(2)的惯例，并遵循了美国澳博app协会1980年示范规则1讨论草案的规定.6，它被ABA从模型规则的后续版本中删除. 在起草规则1期间.6个在哥伦比亚特区, 对于澳博app不披露机密和秘密以防止对第三方造成损害的义务的例外范围，存在相当大的争论. By contrast, the exception for disclosure obligations required by law received very little attention. 异常的非限定语言, 虽然, appears to recognize the authority of the legislature to subordinate the obligation to preserve client confidences and secrets to other social objectives. 

比如保守秘密的责任, 这个例外也适用于雇员, 澳博app助理和其他为澳博app提供服务的人.规则1.6(e). 它们“可能披露第(c)和(d)段允许披露的信息”。.” Id. The question is whether this exception authorizes the social worker to reveal confidences and secrets pursuant to a law that does not apply to the lawyer.³ 我们的结论是，事实并非如此. 

规则1中的例外.6(e) allowing persons employed by the lawyer to disclose confidences or secrets is strictly derivative of the exception for disclosures by the lawyer. 也就是说，它通过引用规则1来定义.6(c)及(d), 澳博app为客户保密的义务有哪些例外. 换句话说，根据规则1.6(e), client confidences and secrets can be disclosed by and employee only in circumstances where the lawyer may disclose. The Rule does not authorize disclosure of client confidences and secrets by an employee where the lawyer is prohibited from so disclosing.

如果规则1。我们会得到不同的结论.6(e) contained language authorizing an employee to disclose client confidences and secrets independently of the disclosure rules applicable to the employing lawyer. 由于没有这样的措辞，我们的结论是，在这里提出的情况下，规则1.6(e) allows no exception to the duty to ensure that the social worker preserves the confidences and secrets of the lawyer’s client. 我们相信对规则1的这种解释.第6条不仅与它对披露客户机密的严格限制是一致的，而且也与它承认澳博app需要其他专业人士和非专业人士的协助才能正确地代表他们的客户. 

我们承认，对规则1的这种解释.6使社会工作者和澳博app都陷入了困境.⁴ The 职业行为准则 cannot insulate a social worker from obligations otherwise imposed by law. 因此, 澳博app行使“合理谨慎”以确保雇员不泄露客户机密的义务，不包括法律规定的阻止社工报告虐待或忽视儿童的义务.⁵ 规则1的另一种解释.6, 虽然, would create the anomaly that the social worker working for the lawyer would be mandated to make disclosures that the lawyer is forbidden from making.

委员会解释第1条的一项事先决定.6(d)(2)并不能说明我们面前的问题. 在D.C. 澳博app操守行动. 第219条，美国的一项规定.S. Patent and Trademark Office required practitioners to reveal a fraud perpetrated on a “person” or “tribunal” during the course of the representation of 客户端, 否则规则3可能禁止的披露.3(d).⁶ 我们认为法律要求的披露例外适用, subject only to the additional requirement that 客户端 be informed of the lawyer’s obligation and be given an opportunity to challenge the regulation. 但该意见只涉及直接由澳博app承担的披露义务, 不在澳博app雇佣的人身上.

The inconsistent duties of the social worker and the lawyer—the social worker to report under the child abuse and neglect law, 澳博app为了确保客户的机密和秘密得到保护，要求澳博app采取措施确保客户理解这种不一致. 看到 规则1.4(b).⁷ 在请社工来之前, 澳博app应告知案主，社会工作者可能有举报虐待或忽视儿童的法定义务，这与澳博app和社会工作者根据《澳博app》所规定的保密义务不一致. 澳博app应该进一步解释, 结果是, the social worker may in fact report information supplied by 客户端 or the lawyer to relevant authorities. It is then 客户端’s decision whether to proceed with the use of a social worker in the case.

It is also appropriate for the lawyer to inform the social worker of the lawyer’s obligations under 规则1.6 to preserve confidences and secrets of 客户端 and to assure that the social worker does the same. 澳博app不应该, 然而, 就法律规定的报告义务向社工提供法律建议，因为澳博app对案主负有保护机密的责任，因此不能向社工提出任何相反的意见. 看到 规则1.7(a). Nor should the lawyer request that the social worker ignore the provisions of the law mandating reporting of child abuse or neglect.

结论 

澳博app面临的困境, 客户端, 而社工的问题也不容易解决, 规则似乎没有考虑到我们所面临的情况. 鉴于规则1和规则1之间的关系不够清晰.法律要求某些专业人员报告虐待和忽视儿童的行为, 在本意见所讨论的情况下，澳博app的义务是双重的:第一, to inform his client of the possible implications of sharing information about child abuse or neglect with a social worker working for the lawyer; and 第二个, 告知社工规则1所规定的义务.16. 

调查没有. 97-7-36
一九九八年六月十七日通过

1. 当受保护人“知道或有合理的理由怀疑他或她以专业或官方身份认识的儿童已经或正在面临成为精神或身体上受虐待或被忽视的儿童的直接危险”时，该法规触发了报告要求, 如§16-2301(9)所定义. . . .” D.C. 法典§2-1352(a).
2. 需要报告的人员类别包括, 除了一个社会工作者, 一名医生, 心理学家, 法医, 脊椎指压治疗者, 牙医, 注册护士, 持牌执业护士, 护理和治疗病人的人, 执法官员, 学校官员, 老师, 社会服务工作者, 日托工作者, 心理健康专家. D.C. 法典§2-1352(b).
3. 在某些情况下，澳博app可以根据规则1报告虐待儿童的情况.6(c)(1), 但只有当它构成"澳博app合理地认为可能导致死亡或实质性身体伤害的犯罪行为，而澳博app没有披露客户的秘密或机密.哥伦比亚特区虐待和忽视儿童的报告要求要广泛得多, both in referring to past acts and in using a lower threshold of harm to the child to trigger the reporting obligation.
4. The relationship between mandatory child-abuse reporting rules and the duty of confidentiality obligations has been the subject of considerable discussion. 罗森格兰兹, 拒绝“勿听邪恶”, “不说恶”:扩大澳博app在虐待儿童报告中的作用, 8地理. J. L. 伦理学327(冬天), 1995); Mosteller, Child Abuse Reporting Law and Attorney-Client Confidences: The Reality and the Specter of Lawyer as Informant, 1992年Duke Law J. 203; Stuart, Child Abuse Reporting: A Challenge to Attorney-Client Confidentiality, 1 Geo. J. L. 伦理243 (1987).
  It is arguable that the social worker has no mandatory reporting obligation in these circumstances. 法院可能会解释D.C. 法典§2-1352 as excluding a social worker from mandatory reporting obligations when working for a lawyer. 1977年《澳博app》的立法历史中没有讨论该法律对澳博app或为澳博app工作的保健专业人员的影响. The committee report states only that the statute is intended to apply to “a broad range of medical, 教育, 社会服务和执法专业人员.哥伦比亚特区议会，关于第2-48号法案的报告，1977年3月30日.
5. 参见规则1.6, 评论[27], expressing a presumption against other laws superseding a lawyer’s obligation of confidentiality. Absent a judicial interpretation of the applicability of the statute to a social worker working for a lawyer, 然而, 澳博app必须确保案主理解澳博app保护信息的义务与社会工作者报告信息的法定义务之间可能存在矛盾.
6. 规则3.第3条(d)款规定，澳博app不必向法庭披露客户的欺诈行为，如果这样做“将需要披露受规则1保护的资料”.6 . . .”
7. 规则1.4(b) provides that “A lawyer shall explain a matter to the extent reasonably necessary to permit 客户端 to make informed decisions regarding the representation.”