how privileged communication works
in addition to attorney client privilege and conversations with medical professionals and religious officials privileged communications include those between two spouses accountant and client and in some states reporters and their sources in professional relationships the right of protection for the communication belongs to the client patient or penitent the recipient of the information must keep the communication private unless the privilege is waived by the discloser of the information if the recipient of the information fails to keep the information private in many instances they can lose their operating license the key provisions of privilege between spouses are that courts cannot force husbands or wives to disclose the contents of confidential communications made during marriage nor can either spouse be compelled to testify against the other these rights which endure even after a marriage is dissolved are designed to protect the honesty and confidentiality of marriage however these protections do not prevent one or the other spouse from testifying against the other in court should they choose to do so special considerationsto ensure confidential status in a privileged communication relationship the communication made between the two parties must take place in a private setting for example a meeting room where the parties have a reasonable expectation that others might not overhear them however the privileged status of the communication ends if or when the communication is shared with a third party that is not part of the protected relationship however a person who is an agent of the recipient of the information an accountant s secretary say or a doctor s nurse is generally not considered to be a third party who jeopardizes the privileged status of the communication it is important to keep in mind that there are situations where privileged communications stops being private for example if there have been disclosures of harm to people or the threat of harm to people in the future communications with medical professionals are not protected when the professional has reason to believe the patient may bring harm to themselves or others the lack of protection typically extends to suspected abuse of children or other vulnerable people such as the elderly or disabled even between spouses privileged communication typically does not apply in cases involving the harm or the threat of harm to a spouse or children in the couple s care or to crimes jointly committed with the other spouse 