Accounting and Finance Foundations

Unit 1

Accounting and Finance Foundations Unit 1: Accounting Careers 70

Accounting Careers

3.1.9 Confidentiality

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines confidential as:

•    marked by  intimacy    or  willingness to  confide <a  confidential tone>

•    private,   secret  <confidential information>

•    entrusted  with    confidences <a  confidential clerk>

•    containing information whose   unauthorized    disclosure  could   be  prejudicial to  the national    interest

Confidentiality applies to a variety of situations. It is personal when it relates to someone’s personal infor-

mation or friends who are trading secrets. It relates to parents who are aware of information about their

children or their children’s friends. It applies to teachers and school counselors and information they know

about students. And, it applies to a range of professionals such as doctors, police officers, elected officials,

judges, attorneys, accountants, investment advisors, and people in other occupations, and what they know

about certain people, places, and things.

Confidentiality is an ethical principle that requires good judgment be applied daily in professions such as

law, medicine, and counseling. In these professions, communication between the professional and the

person being helped (client) legally cannot be shared with others.

The law requires attorneys to keep secret any information that pertains to defending their clients. This is

known as legal confidentiality. It enables clients to discuss their cases openly with their attorneys. Clients

need to be comfortable sharing all relevant information about their cases including information that might

hurt their cases with their lawyers. An open conversation keeps the attorney from being surprised in court

by information a client should have shared with him/her. The information might even be something that

the attorney could use to help her/his client. Legal confidentiality allows a client to receive the best legal

representation s/he possibly can, without fear of having the information used against her/him. However,

there are exceptions to the requirement of legal confidentiality. If an attorney has reason to believe that a

client may kill or seriously injure someone, may cause substantial injury to the financial interest or prop-

erty of another, or is using the attorney’s services to commit a crime or fraud, s/he is not required to keep

the information secret.

Confidentiality also applies to conversations between doctors and patients. This is called medical confi-

dentiality. Doctors are protected from having to share certain information obtained from conversations

with their patients, even under oath in court. Just like in legal confidentiality, the practice is an attempt to

allow the doctor to provide the best treatment possible by making sure the patient is comfortable discuss-

ing all relevant information. There are numerous exceptions to medical confidentiality, though. Many U.S.

states require doctors to report gunshot wounds to police and impaired drivers to the Department of Motor

Vehicles. There can also be exceptions related to the diagnosis of certain diseases, especially if a patient’s

refusal to share the diagnosis with a spouse or others could cause harm to them, or if an underage

patient’s parents are not aware of a potentially dangerous medical issue.

Student Guide

Chapter 3