§ 90.502, Fla. Stat. — Lawyer-Client Privilege
Plain English
This is the rule that lets you tell your lawyer the whole truth without it coming back to bite you. Under § 90.502, confidential communications made to obtain legal services are privileged — and the client, not the lawyer, owns that privilege and can stop the lawyer (and others who were in the loop to help with the representation) from disclosing them. It covers individuals and organizations alike. But the wall isn’t absolute. The big exception is crime-fraud: if a client used the lawyer’s services to plan or commit what the client knew was a crime or fraud, the privilege evaporates. There are also exceptions for fights between the lawyer and client and a handful of other narrow situations.
From the Courtroom
The privilege fight that catches people off guard is the crime-fraud exception — the one place the wall comes down. Opposing counsel who can convince a judge the client used the lawyer to further a crime or fraud can pry open communications everyone assumed were sealed for good. Watching that motion get granted is a sobering thing.
Key Points & Authority
- § 90.502(2), Fla. Stat. — The client may refuse to disclose, and prevent others from disclosing, confidential communications made in the rendition of legal services.
- § 90.502(4): no privilege where the lawyer’s services were sought to commit a crime or fraud (crime-fraud), in lawyer-client disputes, and other listed exceptions.
- Federal contrast: federal courts have no numbered attorney-client privilege rule — Fed. R. Evid. 501 directs them to apply federal common law (and state privilege law on state-law claims). Florida is unusual in codifying the privilege.
Federal Parallel
There is no numbered federal counterpart. Fed. R. Evid. 501 leaves privileges to federal common law (with state law applying to state-law claims), whereas Florida spells the lawyer-client privilege out by statute in § 90.502.
About this rule walkthrough
Part of The Evidence Code, hosted by John M. Phillips — Board Certified Civil Trial Lawyer, Court TV analyst, admitted in 8 states + 9 federal districts + SCOTUS.
Free consultation: (904) 444-4444 · About John Phillips
Educational only — not legal advice.
Rule Text (verbatim from the Florida Supreme Court)
(1) For purposes of this section: (a) A “lawyer” is a person authorized, or reasonably believed by the client to be authorized, to practice law in any state or nation. (b) A “client” is any person, public officer, corporation, association, or other organization or entity, either public or private, who consults a lawyer with the purpose of obtaining legal services or who is rendered legal services by a lawyer. (c) A communication between lawyer and client is “confidential” if it is not intended to be disclosed to third persons other than those to whom disclosure is in furtherance of the rendition of legal services to the client, and those reasonably necessary for the transmission of the communication.
(2) A client has a privilege to refuse to disclose, and to prevent any other person from disclosing, the contents of confidential communications when such other person learned of the communications because they were made in the rendition of legal services to the client.
(3) The privilege may be claimed by the client; a guardian or conservator of the client; the personal representative of a deceased client; a successor, assignee, trustee in dissolution, or similar representative of an organization, corporation, or association or other entity; or the lawyer, but only on behalf of the client (the lawyer’s authority to claim the privilege is presumed in the absence of contrary evidence).
(4) There is no lawyer-client privilege under this section when: (a) The services of the lawyer were sought or obtained to enable or aid anyone to commit or plan to commit what the client knew was a crime or fraud. (b) A communication is relevant to an issue between parties who claim through the same deceased client. (c) A communication is relevant to an issue of breach of duty by the lawyer to the client or by the client to the lawyer, arising from the lawyer-client relationship. (d) A communication is relevant to an issue concerning the intention or competence of a client executing an attested document to which the lawyer is an attesting witness, or concerning the execution or attestation of the document. (e) A communication is relevant to a matter of common interest between two or more clients, or their successors in interest, if the communication was made by any of them to a lawyer retained or consulted in common when offered in a civil action between the clients or their successors in interest.
(5) Communications made by a person who seeks or receives services from the Department of Revenue under the child support enforcement program to the attorney representing the department shall be confidential and privileged as provided for in this section.
(6) A discussion or activity that is not a meeting for purposes of s. 286.011 shall not be construed to waive the attorney-client privilege established in this section.
Educational reference. Educational only — not legal advice.
What this rule means in plain English
Section 90.502 codifies the attorney-client privilege: confidential communications made to obtain legal services are privileged and the client holds the privilege, subject to exceptions including crime-fraud and lawyer-client disputes.