Report: Lawyer-Client Confidentiality in a Digitalized Society

The principle of legal professional privilege and confidentiality (LPPC) is clearly established in international, regional, and domestic legal regimes. The digital society has expanded the communications between clients and their lawyers from written exchanges and face-to-face offline communication to online mail contact/messaging and phone- and videocalls. These digital methods of communication offer many advantages but are also vulnerable to interception by third parties. Several instances of illegitimate surveillance and interference with digital communications of lawyers with their clients have been reported in recent years, including wiretapping and hacking of lawyers’ phones through intrusive surveillance software. Additionally, problems posed by a lack of respect for LPPC during investigations by public prosecutors are discussed.

The aim of this report is to create awareness about the threats to LPPC in the digital age and to reiterate the importance of our commitment to protect this principle as part of protecting the rule of law. Our analysis of the current legal framework and case studies relating to LPPC show that the protection of LPPC requires our attention.

The full report can be found here.