Confidentiality

All communications with the LAP are strictly confidential and subject to the attorney-client privilege. If you call to seek help for yourself, your inquiry is confidential. If you call as the spouse, child, law partner, or friend of a lawyer whom you suspect may need help, your communication is also treated confidentially and is never relayed without your permission to the lawyer for whom you are seeking help. The LAP has a committee of trained lawyer volunteers who have personally overcome these issues and are committed to helping other lawyers overcome them. If you call a LAP volunteer, your communication is also treated as confidential. The LAP is completely separate from the disciplinary arm of the State Bar. If you disclose to LAP staff or to a LAP volunteer any misconduct or ethical violations, it is confidential and cannot be disclosed. See NCGS §84-32.1(d), Rules 1.6(c) and 8.3(c) of the Rules of Professional Conduct and Formal Ethics Opinion 2001 FEO 5. The LAP works because it provides an opportunity for a lawyer to get safe, free, confidential help before the consequences of any impairment become irreversible.