If a criminal is on the run, can they divulge their location to their lawyer without the lawyer telling police?

[oz]

What I really mean is, is the lawyer legally obligated to tell the authorities where their client is if said client is on the run from the law?

[abraham90]

NO.

A defendants lawyer is obligated to do the exact opposite actually.
Your lawyers job is to defend you. Your lawyer does not work for the police.
If a lawyer turned their clients in to the law who would hire them ?????

[seager]

Good question. If a lawyer knows about past crimes, he is prohibited from telling if it was revealed to him/her in confidence as an attorney. However, if the attorney knows you are going to kill someone or do some future crime, within minutes or whatever, they are required to reveal it if someone would be likely to suffer major harm. I do not know if hey have to divulge the location of the client. They do often arrange to take the client in and facilitate that. However, I do not know if hey have to tell he police or not. Might be best to talk to lawyer to turn yourself in rather than forcing them to find you. You have a better chance of being believed.

[garbhach65]

If a criminal is on the run, no attorney would ALLOW said criminal to divulge his location . . . because this knowledge could be considered aiding and abeting.

Attorneys are prohibited from divulging any information about past crimes. But a fugitive is not just someone who has commited a past crime. A fugitive is someone who is actively engaged in a new criminal activity - and an attorney who gets involved is risking arrest.

The only potential loophole would involve the attorney attempting to negotiate the surrender of the fugitive. For example, a fugitive can call me or come to me to ask for assistance in turning himself in - and this is fine. But if I give the fugitive legal advice on how to continue to evade capture I'm looking at a jail cell next to the fugitive.

[hyun-su]

obligated? I know of no state or nation with such a criminal law. Whether the lawyer is PROHIBITED from telling the cops would be determined by the ethical code for lawyers, and that varies by state and nation as well. Then there is the question is whether the lawyer is willing to risk being sanctioned. That depends on the invidual lawyer

[tiernan]

The answer is certainly NO.

It is stated in the law certain provision about lawyer and clients relationship and of course confidentiality. It is the duty of all lawyers to protect there client's interests at all times.

[erwin]

no you are not legally obliged to tell anyone where the criminal is. however if it was a mass murderer and because you decided to protect them and not tell, 10 other people were murdered you might find that weighs on your conscience a bit.