Attorney-Directed Confidentiality Non-Override Invoked in BER 90-5
P · Principle
Individual
http://proethica.org/ontology/case/149#Attorney-Directed_Confidentiality_Non-Override_Invoked_in_BER_90-5
Properties
Instance of
Attorney-DirectedConfidentialityNon-OverrideofImminentStructuralSafetyDisclosure
http://proethica.org/ontology/intermediate#Attorney-DirectedConfidentialityNon-OverrideofImminentStructuralSafetyDisclosure
Applied to
Attorney instruction to maintain confidentiality over structural defects in litigated apartment building
Balancing with
Forensic Expert Non-Advocate Status in Civil Litigation
Public Welfare Paramount
Concrete expression
In BER Case 90-5, the attorney's instruction that the engineer maintain confidentiality over discovered structural defects as part of the litigation was ethically ineffective because the defects constituted an immediate threat to tenant safety, overriding any purported attorney-client confidentiality extension.
Confidence
0.96
Importance
high
Interpretation
An attorney cannot ethically direct an engineer to suppress safety-critical findings that constitute imminent danger; the engineer's public safety obligation is not subject to attorney control.
Invoked by
BER 90-5 Forensic Engineer
BER 90-5 Retaining Attorney
Tension resolution
Imminent danger threshold caused the attorney's confidentiality instruction to be ethically void.
Source Evidence
Source text
the Board discounted the attorney's statement that the engineer was legally bound to maintain confidentiality, noting that any such duty was superseded by the immediate and imminent danger to the building's tenants.
Text references
Upon reporting the findings to the attorney, the engineer was told he must maintain this information as confidential as it is part of the lawsuit
the Board discounted the attorney's statement that the engineer was legally bound to maintain confidentiality, noting that any such duty was superseded by the immediate and imminent danger to the building's tenants
TTL
@prefix case149: <http://proethica.org/ontology/case/149#> .
@prefix owl: <http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#> .
@prefix proeth: <http://proethica.org/ontology/intermediate#> .
@prefix prov: <http://www.w3.org/ns/prov#> .
@prefix rdfs: <http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#> .
@prefix xsd: <http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#> .
case149:Attorney-Directed_Confidentiality_Non-Override_Invoked_in_BER_90-5 a proeth:Attorney-DirectedConfidentialityNon-OverrideofImminentStructuralSafetyDisclosure,
owl:NamedIndividual ;
rdfs:label "Attorney-Directed Confidentiality Non-Override Invoked in BER 90-5" ;
proeth:appliedto "Attorney instruction to maintain confidentiality over structural defects in litigated apartment building" ;
proeth:balancingwith "Forensic Expert Non-Advocate Status in Civil Litigation",
"Public Welfare Paramount" ;
proeth:conceptCategory "Principle" ;
proeth:concreteexpression "In BER Case 90-5, the attorney's instruction that the engineer maintain confidentiality over discovered structural defects as part of the litigation was ethically ineffective because the defects constituted an immediate threat to tenant safety, overriding any purported attorney-client confidentiality extension." ;
proeth:confidence "0.96" ;
proeth:discoveredincase "149" ;
proeth:discoveredinpass "2" ;
proeth:discoveredinsection "discussion" ;
proeth:firstdiscoveredat "2026-03-01T12:24:49.228652+00:00" ;
proeth:firstdiscoveredincase "149" ;
proeth:generatedattime "2026-03-01T12:24:49.228652+00:00" ;
proeth:importance "high" ;
proeth:interpretation "An attorney cannot ethically direct an engineer to suppress safety-critical findings that constitute imminent danger; the engineer's public safety obligation is not subject to attorney control." ;
proeth:invokedby "BER 90-5 Forensic Engineer",
"BER 90-5 Retaining Attorney" ;
proeth:principleclass "Attorney-Directed Confidentiality Non-Override of Imminent Structural Safety Disclosure" ;
proeth:sourcetext "the Board discounted the attorney's statement that the engineer was legally bound to maintain confidentiality, noting that any such duty was superseded by the immediate and imminent danger to the building's tenants." ;
proeth:tensionresolution "Imminent danger threshold caused the attorney's confidentiality instruction to be ethically void." ;
proeth:textreferences "Upon reporting the findings to the attorney, the engineer was told he must maintain this information as confidential as it is part of the lawsuit",
"the Board discounted the attorney's statement that the engineer was legally bound to maintain confidentiality, noting that any such duty was superseded by the immediate and imminent danger to the building's tenants" ;
proeth:wasattributedto "Case 149 Extraction" ;
prov:generatedAtTime "2026-03-01T12:35:30.894803"^^xsd:dateTime ;
prov:wasGeneratedBy "ProEthica Case 149 Extraction" .
Metadata
Extraction details
Discovered in case
149
Discovered in pass
2
Discovered in section
discussion
First discovered
2026-03-01T12:24:49.228652+00:00
First case
149
Generated
2026-03-01T12:24:49.228652+00:00
Attributed to
Case 149 Extraction
Generated
2026-03-01T12:35:30.894803
Generated by
ProEthica Case 149 Extraction