DP8

DecisionPoint
http://proethica.org/ontology/cases#DecisionPoint

DP8

Should Engineer A proactively disclose to Attorney Z — before allowing the engagement to be passively terminated — that his forensic findings point to plaintiff fault and discuss the ethical implications of that situation, or should he treat the adverse findings as confidential work product and allow the engagement to dissolve without surfacing the conflict?

Pre-Termination Disclosure Obligation and Post-Termination Confidentiality Perpetuation: Before his services were terminated, Engineer A had reached findings adverse to the plaintiff but did not proactively disclose this to Attorney Z or discuss the ethical implications of the situation. This omission foreclosed the plaintiff's ability to exercise the consent-prerequisite mechanism and left the circumstances of termination in a form exploitable by opposing counsel, compounding the subsequent switching-sides violation.

Before allowing the engagement to be terminated, affirmatively disclose to Attorney Z that the forensic analysis points to plaintiff fault, explain the ethical implications of that finding for the engagement and any future adverse participation, and give Attorney Z the opportunity to explicitly invoke confidentiality protections and address the consent-prerequisite question.

Treat the adverse findings as confidential work product belonging to the engagement, decline to produce the requested favorable report, and allow Attorney Z to terminate the engagement without proactively surfacing the nature of the findings — on the basis that the findings were developed in confidence for the client and their disclosure is the client's prerogative, not the engineer's obligation.

Provide Attorney Z with a written summary documenting the scope of confidential information reviewed, the nature of the analytical conclusions reached, and the ethical constraints that would apply to any future adverse use of that information — without characterizing the findings as definitively adverse — thereby creating a record that preserves the consent-prerequisite mechanism while respecting the confidential character of the work product.

Engineer A