How to Report Police Misconduct

http://lawcollective.org/article.php?id=96

A great deal of police misconduct occurs, but goes unreported.1 This is a shame for several
reasons:

• Reporting police misconduct is the first step in stopping it.

• Reporting police misconduct may help a victim win a

lawsuit against the officers who injured him.

• Reporting police misconduct may help show that a

defendant in a criminal case was coerced by officers
to confess or consent to a search.

One reason many people don’t report police misconduct they’ve seen or experienced, is that
they’re not sure how to go about it. The following material will help you provide clear and
powerful testimony, if you’re in a position to report police misconduct.

There are three tricks to being a good eyewitness:

1. Learn in advance what categories of information

will be relevant in court, so you can catch the right
details. That’s why you should familiarize yourself
with the Police Misconduct Report form now.

2. Describe what’s happening in words, while you’re

witnessing it. By mentally giving a running
commentary on the action, you make much stronger
memories.

3. Write down everything that happened. Don’t wait—

do it immediately after the incident. If at all
possible, make notes while you’re still at the scene,
especially about names and numbers.

Experiments have shown that our minds don’t normally retain very many details of our
experiences.2 There’s also a myth in our society that when you see a shocking event, it’s
branded into your memory and under the right circumstances (such as hypnosis) you’ll be
able to play it back, just like a videotape. That’s rarely true. The reality is that if you’re very
angry or afraid, your mind stores fewer of the details that you’re experiencing, because your
attention is divided. For example, it’s not unusual for rape victims to find themselves unable to
remember even their assailant’s race or hair color. So, if you’re experiencing or watching
police violence or threats (which is naturally upsetting), you’ll have to concentrate carefully to
see and remember the details. You’ll do a much better job if you say in your mind exactly
what’s going on while you’re watching, the same as a sports announcer. It might sound like
this:

Now there’s five, six, no seven cops, all piling on him! They’ve got him pinned to the
ground. They’re handcuffing him. Okay, they’ve rolled him over on his back…and
what are they doing? Oh, man, they’re spraying mace or something right in his face!
He’s coughing and gagging. The cops keep on spraying him, over and over. He’s
trying to twist away, but they’re all holding him down. Damn, they’ve used up that
whole thing of spray on him—nothing more is coming out! He’s not breathing too
good either, he’s straining for air, with his mouth wide open and his head thrown
back… Whoa, that big cop just kicked him in the ribs!

If you have a cell phone with you, call a voice mail or a message machine and record your
play-by-play description. And then make a copy of your message afterward, before it gets
erased. Your “live coverage” could be very powerful evidence, both in court and in the media.3

Police Misconduct Report

The incident report form on the following pages was created by several lawyers,4 to help
witnesses to and victims of police misconduct record what they experienced. Naturally, no
one will be able to answer every single question on this form. The point is just to write down
all the information you do have, before it fades away. And memories evaporate quickly. The
best time to fill out the police misconduct report is within a few hours of the incident. Even by
the next day, you’ll find it much harder to remember critical details. To do a good job, you
need to be familiar with the form before you witness the incident. Otherwise, when it comes
time to fill it out, you’ll be kicking yourself because you missed lots of information that you
could’ve collected, if only you’d known it was important. So read through the police
misconduct report form now. Better yet, practice actually filling out the form, using the material
from the story Protect and Serve or your own experiences. Afterward, look at the Sample
Police Misconduct Report describing the events in Protect and Serve. If you take the time
to work with the police misconduct report in advance, you’ll get the outline of it in your head,
so that when you’re at an incident, you’ll know just what information to seek out. (You can
download the Police Misconduct Report.)
1. For more information on police misconduct and what can be done about it, see Suggested Reference Material on

Police Misconduct.

2. To learn more about providing accurate eyewitness testimony, see Elizabeth F. Loftus, Eyewitness Testimony (Cambridge,

MA: Harvard University Press, 1996.) It's important to know which details require greated concentration, such as

remembering the features of someone of a different race, noticing other facts when someone's brandishing a weapon, and

perceiving details during a stressful or violent incident.

3. Even if you do record the event using your cellphone, you must also fill out the police misconduct report right away. The

questions in the report will help you remember material that you didn't happen to talk about while you were making your

recording. The written report and the spoken recording will each make the other stronger.

4. The lawyers who designed this police misconduct report are: Katya Komisaruk, Osha Neumann, and Bill Simpich.

What to Do With the Police Misconduct Report

Always keep the original copy of a police misconduct report you’ve filled out. Make
photocopies of your report for other people as needed. Never give away your only copy.

Deliver your information to the victim or the victim’s attorney within a week. That way, if the
victim has been charged with a crime, his criminal defense attorney will have a better chance
of heading off the case. And if the victim wants to sue the police, his civil rights lawyer won’t
miss the deadlines—some as short as two weeks—for the first steps in a lawsuit (“giving
notice of claim”).

How you use the police misconduct report depends on whether you’re a victim or a witness,
and on whether anyone expects to go to court.

1. You’re the victim. Choose (a) or (b) below.

(a) You’ve been charged with a crime and/or you’re

thinking of suing the police.

You must be sure to give the report only to your

own lawyer(s). If you even show the police misconduct
report to other people, it will no longer be protected by
the attorney/client privilege—and that would be very
disadvantageous in a legal battle (see Maintaining
 Confidentiality)

(b) You’re absolutely certain that you’re not going to be charged with a crime and
you’re not going to sue the police.

Submit a complaint to the local police review organization. This may be a private
community organization, it may be part of the city or county government, or it may
be part of the police department. Normally, such an organization will have its own
report form, usually much shorter than the police misconduct report. Attach a copy
of the police misconduct report to the organization’s form, so that you provide as
much detail as possible.

(Although police review agencies rarely discipline police officers, your complaint
may be helpful to another victim in the future. That victim’s lawyer will seek out
past complaints, to show that the officer has a history of abusive behavior.)

2. You’re a witness. Choose (a) or (b)

(a) The victim has been charged with a crime and/or is

thinking of suing the police.

Give copies of the police misconduct report to the

victim and the victim’s lawyer

(b) The victim is definitely not going to be charged with a crime and is not going to sue
the police.

Submit a complaint to the victim and to the police

review organization, see 1(b). You don’t have to be
a victim to submit a complaint.

How to find the victim:

If you don’t know the victim, try asking people in the area where the incident occurred
(neighbors, workers, students). Be persistent. As a last resort, leave notices where the
incident happened (on telephone poles, lampposts, fences, etc.), explaining that you
witnessed police misconduct and are willing to talk to the victim. Give clear instructions on
how to contact you. If you leave notices, the police may contact you, too, although you’re
certainly not required to speak with them.

How to find the criminal defense lawyer who is representing the victim:
If the victim has been charged with a crime, he should have a lawyer, either a private attorney
or the public defender. First, you’ve got to get the victim’s name. Once you have that, call the
public defender’s office and/or the office of court records,1 and ask: “Has a case been filed
against ________?” (Remember to refer to the victim of police misconduct as the “defendant,”
because you’re asking about someone who’s been charged with a crime.) If a case has been
filed, ask for the name of the defendant’s lawyer. (Make sure you’re getting the name of the
defense attorney, not the prosecutor.) Be polite but persistent. Sometimes it takes a few days
for the charges to be filed and sometimes whoever answers the phone may not be able or
willing to help. So be prepared to call back several times, or go to the courthouse or the public
defender’s office in person. (If the victim was arrested by federal officers or on federal
property, make sure you call the clerk of the U.S. District Court or the Office of the Federal
Defender.)

How to find a police misconduct lawyer:

You want a lawyer who does mostly police misconduct cases, not one who does a little of
everything, or who handles some other area of law, like divorces or immigration. You can find
a police misconduct lawyer by calling the local offices of the National Lawyers Guild (NLG),
the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the American Civil
Liberties Union (ACLU), or the local Bar Association. Don’t give up just because the first few
lawyers say they can’t help. If more than one lawyer is willing to take the case, interview them
all to see which seems best. Usually, police misconduct cases are taken on contingency. This
means that the victim doesn’t pay her lawyer up front; instead, the victim’s lawyer gets paid
only if she wins the case—that’s why police misconduct lawyers are very selective about
which cases they’ll accept. Your carefully written report may help convince a good lawyer to
take the case in the first place, as well as being useful later on.2

Note: If there is a court case, you must check with the victim’s lawyer before talking to
reporters. Obviously, publicity can be extremely helpful to someone who’s been victimized by
the police, but you should work with the victim’s attorney to determine the best way to go
about this. You need to find the right journalists to talk to, choose exactly what to say, and
decide just when to break the story. The staff of local chapters of the NLG, NAACP or ACLU
often has considerable experience in arranging publicity for political cases. You may want to
ask them to work with the victim’s lawyer on fine-tuning the media strategy, writing press
releases, etc.

1. The office in which court records are kept goes by various names, such as: the Clerk's Office, the Clerk of the Court, the

Criminal Records Division, the Records Department, etc. Be patient and expect to make several phone calls before you hit

the right office. Sometimes there's one office for civil cases and another for criminal cases. Usually, the office has a counter
or window, and you can just explain to the clerk that you're trying to figure out whether a case has been filed

against_______.

2. When you're trying to get a lawyer to take a case on contingency, dress conservatively and be extremely organized. The

lawyer will be checking you out, wondering whether you'd be helpful in preparing the case and believable in court. I f you

don't make a good impression at the first meeting, you may not get another chance.

Questions and Answers About Protect and Serve

Why is it important to notice what was said and done before the police began
threatening or hurting the victims?

Because you need to show who was at fault. The police may lie
and claim that they were just responding to the suspect’s being
violent or running away.

Were Anthony and Cecilia responsible for starting the incident because they said
something disrespectful about the police officers?

No. The right to freedom of speech means that anyone is

entitled to criticize the police. It’s not illegal to make rude
remarks to a law enforcement officer.1 And in this case,
Anthony and Cecilia weren’t even talking to the police,
they were having a private conversation.

What about the other witnesses to this incident? Would they be helpful?

There were two other witnesses: a young man and a woman.

The man looked like he might be afraid to get involved, and
might have been drunk at the time (since he’s holding a bag
with a bottle). The woman seemed to be concerned about
what was happening, because Officer Smith tried to reassure
her by saying, “Nothing to see here, ma’am, everything’s under
control.” However, she may have been too far away to see and
hear properly. Nonetheless, it’s absolutely critical to talk to
both witnesses and get their names and a way to contact them
in the future. (If you don’t make contact with them at the time of
the incident, it may be impossible to find them later.) In a police
misconduct case, the more witnesses, the better. If the officers
lie about what happened, and it’s your word against theirs, you
 really need other eyewitnesses to back up your testimony.
Even when the other witnesses only saw or heard a small
part of what happened, if they can support what you’re
saying, that will help.

If you’re witnessing a police misconduct incident in real life, how close can you stand?
Should you talk to the police or to the victim?

There’s no law about how close you can be to the police—

you’ve just got to use common sense. Get as near as possible,
so you can see and hear details, without being in the officers’
way.Remember that you do have the right to watch what the
officers are doing—observing the police is not “obstruction of
justice” or “interfering with an officer.” You also have a right to
talk to the police or the suspect. But if the police say they don’t
want to talk to you, don’t nag them. Don’t come up behind a
police officer. Don’t touch an officer or his equipment or his
vehicle. And avoid quick or sneaky-looking movements.

What about taking photos or videos of police misconduct, like the person who
videotaped Rodney King being beaten?

If someone can hurry and get a camera, that would be great.

But if you’re the only witness, it’s better to stay, using your
eyes and writing notes—if you went away, you might miss
something important. Again, you have to use your own
judgment. If you have a cell phone, be sure to call a voice
mail or phone machine and record a detailed, blow-by-blow
description of what’s happening.

Aren’t you taking a chance, if you report police misconduct like this, that the police will
come and harass you?

Yes, that is a chance that you’re taking. You could try to

report it anonymously, but lawyers, police review
organizations, and the media are not likely to pay attention
unless the person making the report is willing to testify.
If you do want to report police misconduct, there are two
things that will make you safer. First, make sure that lots
of people know that you’ve made the report—that way, it will
be clearer that if the police go after you, they’re just trying to
get even. Second, get other witnesses to make reports, too,
 because there’s safety in numbers. Only you can decide if
it’s a good idea for you to report police misconduct, given
the circumstances in which you live. But remember, for
things to get better, people have to be willing to speak out.
As a wise man once said, “If I am not for myself, who will
be for me? If I am only for myself, what am I? And if not
now, when?”2

Were the search and the arrest unlawful, since the officers didn’t think Anthony and
Cecilia had committed a crime?

Yes, the search and the arrest were unlawful. The officers
didn’t even have reasonable suspicion (the amount of proof
necessary to detain a suspect), let alone probable cause
(the amount of proof necessary to search or arrest a
suspect). The officers didn’t think Anthony and Cecilia
had committed a crime, but just wanted to check on them
out of curiosity. Remember that Officer Jones says, “Let’s
see what these kids are up to.” This statement is very
significant, because it helps show that the police weren’t
justified even in detaining Anthony and Cecilia. This is a
good example of why it’s important to notice what’s said
before things get ugly.

What about when Anthony spat or when Cecilia ran away? Were those actions illegal?

Anthony’s spitting may well have been illegal, since in many

areas there are laws against spitting on the sidewalk. Cecilia
wasn’t breaking the law by running away, since the police
didn’t have a legal reason for detaining her. (If the police
actually had a valid reason for detaining her, then running
away would have been illegal.) Legal or not, spitting and
running were provocative in this situation. However, even
if Anthony and Cecilia had committed serious crimes, the
police weren’t justified in hurting them as they did, or in
using hate speech.

Did the police use excessive force in dealing with Anthony and Cecilia?

Yes. The police are only allowed to use force that’s in

proportion to the force used by the suspect, and only
in order to restrain the suspect (or defend themselves)
 during a lawful detention or arrest. If this had been a
lawful detention, Officer Jones could have dealt with
Anthony by turning him around and handcuffing him,
but Jones shouldn’t have slapped Anthony.
Nor should Jones have jabbed him with a nightstick just for
calling out to Cecilia. And if Cecilia had run away from a
lawful detention, it would have been reasonable for Officer
Smith to grab her and handcuff her. But he wouldn’t be
entitled to use a chokehold on her, or whack her on the
back of the head while he was handcuffing her.

Was Officer Jones’s demand to search Anthony’s bag legal?

No. The police officers didn’t have an adequate reason to

suspect Anthony and Cecilia in the first place, therefore
the officers weren’t entitled to search their bags. So
Anthony was right in refusing to let the police look in
his bag—but he might have expressed it in a less
challenging way. It’s an advantage to say it formally,
such as: “I don’t consent to your searching my bag.”
That signals to police and lawyers that you know your
rights.

Was Anthony guilty of resisting arrest?

No, Anthony was entitled to object verbally, and he didn’t resist

physically. It was legal and sensible for Anthony to exercise
his civil rights by refusing to answer questions and refusing
consent to search his bag.

When the police used the words, “nigger,” “faggot,” “bitch,” and “fuckin’ beaner,” was
that misconduct?

Yes. Using this type of language is always against police

regulations. And such words would be important evidence
that the police were committing an act of racial
discrimination and/or a “hate crime.”

1. It would be illegal, however, to distract an officer who's in the middle of arresting someone or carrying out some other job-

related activity.
2. Hillel Ethics of the Fathers 1:14 (c. 30 B.C.E.).

Reference Material on Police Misconduct

American Civil Liberties Union. Fighting Police Abuse: A Community Action Manual. New
York: ACLU, 1997.
Profiles of various community groups that combat police misconduct, demonstrating
different strategies: video camera patrols, lawsuits, lobbying, etc. Which statistics are
useful and which are misleading. How to start or improve a police review organization.
Good bibliography and list of contacts. (54 pages)

Ogletree, Charles et al. Beyond the Rodney King Story: An Investigation of Police Conduct in
Minority Communities. Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1995.
Very well organized presentation of the results of an NAACP study. Analysis of the types
and causes of police misconduct, followed by an array of recommendations on how to
stop it. (198 pages)

Human Rights Watch Staff, Shielded from Justice: Police Brutality and Accountability in the
United States. Human Rights Watch, 1998. (450 pages) (This report can also be viewed or
downloaded at http://www.hrw.org/reports98/police/.)

Detailed examination of police misconduct in 14 U.S. cities from 1995–1998. How

investigations of misconduct can be thwarted at various stages. Extensive
recommendations for reform.

Bernards, Neal. Police Brutality: Recognizing Stereotypes. San Diego: Greenhaven Press,
1994.
Well designed lesson in spotting assumptions and rhetoric. Uses marginal notes and
follow-up exercises to analyze contrasting viewpoints on police misconduct. Young adult
level. (36 pages)

Kennedy, Adam and Adrienne Kennedy. Sleep Deprivation Chamber: A Play. New York:
Theatre Communications Group, 1996.
Powerful play about an African-American student who is arrested and beaten up by the
police. He is falsely charged with assault and battery on an officer, and goes to trial.
Many very realistic sequences in which witnesses are rigorously cross-examined about
minute details. If you expect to be a witness in a police misconduct case, read this to
prepare yourself for testifying in court. (72 pages)

Skolnick, Jerome and James Fyfe. Above the Law: Police and the Excessive Use of Force.
New York: The Free Press, 1993.
History and psychology of police misconduct. Analysis of strategies for controlling police
misconduct. (313 pages)
 There’s a great deal of reference material on police misconduct. The books listed above are easy to find in large public

libraries, up-to-date, and for the most part reasonable to read (not written for the edification of other academicians). They’re

listed in order of how useful and readable they seemed. The number of pages listed for each book is generally just the text,

not the notes, indices, bibliographies, etc.

Reference Material on Discrimination in the Legal System

Walker, Samuel, Miriam Delone, and Cassia C. Spohn. The

Color of Justice: Race, Ethnicity, and Crime in America, 3d ed.
Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 2003.

Extremely well organized. Provides the definitions and

statistics you need to have a useful discussion of inequities
in the legal system. Covers police, court, prison, and the
death penalty. Includes convenient overviews of studies
and theories on discrimination in criminal justice. (315
pages)

Mauer, Marc. Race to Incarcerate: The Sentencing Project. New

York: New Press, 1999.

Investigates race and class in the context of prison.

Examines the “Tough on Crime” Movement and the War on
Drugs. Also brief but useful discussion of news coverage
concerning crime and incarceration. (194 pages)

The Sentencing Project: http://www.sentencingproject.org/.

Various reports analyzing disparate treatment in sentencing

on the basis of race, class, and gender. Also short “fact
sheets,” useful for overviews or quick research.

Building Blocks for Youth:

http://www.buildingblocksforyouth.org/.

Contains and cites many studies on minority youth in the

justice system. Some studies concern the treatment of
young women, and the report ¿Dónde está la Justicia?
relates to Latino youth.

Harris, David. Profiles in Injustice: Why Racial Profiling Cannot

Work. New York: New Press, 2002.

Everything you need to know about racial profiling: history,

 important court cases, and statistical studies. Moving
descriptions of the impact of racial profiling on individuals,
along with explanations of its unconstitutionality, and its
ineffectiveness as a law enforcement technique. (227
pages)

Berry, Mary F. The Pig Farmer’s Daughter and Other Tales of

American Justice: Episodes of Racism and Sexism in the Courts
from 1865 to the Present. New York: Knopf, 1999.

Stories showing the effects of sexism and racism in court

cases, both during trial and on appeal. Includes cases
involving extramarital sex, gay and lesbian relationships,
prostitution, seduction, child support, abortion, rape, and
incest. (243 pages)

Miller, Jerome G. Search and Destroy: African-American Males in

the Criminal Justice System. New York: Cambridge University
Press, 1996.

Fairly intellectual analysis of racism in the legal system, but

full of graphic accounts of official mistreatment and the
horrifying complacency of those who condone it. (242
pages)

Reiman, Jeffrey. The Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Prison:
Ideology, Class and Criminal Justice. New York: Macmillan, 1990.

Very lively presentation on the nature of crime, and how

class and race influence who is punished. Reminiscent of
Michael Moore (director of Bowling for Columbine,
Fahrenheit 9/11, etc.), but with an explicitly Marxist slant.
(178 pages)

Leonard, Kimberly K., C. Pope, and W. Feversherm, eds.

Minorities in Juvenile Justice. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 1995.

To understand every word of these articles, you’d need to

have taken a class in statistics (and still remember some of
it), but most of the tables and discussions are pretty clear.
Chapters 2 and 7 summarize interviews with police,
prosecutors, public defenders and judges, exposing their
attitudes concerning race and class. (216 pages)

Lynch, Michael and E. Britt Patterson, eds. Justice With

Prejudice: Race and Criminal Justice in America. Albany, NY:
Harrow and Heston, 1996.

A collection of rather academic articles, but Chapter 5

provides important statistics and analysis on racism in
media coverage of crime. (169 pages)

Up to date statistics on law enforcement, conviction, and

sentencing can be obtained online. Good websites include:
 Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS)
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/

National Criminal Justice Reference Service (NCJRS)

http://www.ncjrs.org/

Sourcebook of criminal justice statistics Online (SCJS)

http://www.albany.edu/sourcebook/

However, the data is often presented in such a way that it’s hard
to spot the instances of systemic discrimination. You may have to
draw on several different tables and do a little math to get useful
information. Before you start number-crunching, read some of the
books listed above to see how they analyzed the statistical
material, because you may want to follow their approach. The
agencies that publish these statistics have staff who can help you
find the right data, especially if you explain really clearly what
you’re after. Check the websites to get up-to-date contact
information (including 800 numbers)—look under “Contact” for
BJS and NCJRS, and under “About Sourcebook” for SCJS.

There’s a great deal of reference material on discrimination in the legal system. The sources listed above are easy to

find in large public libraries, up-to-date, and for the most part reasonable to read (not written for the edification of other

academicians). They’re listed in order of how useful and readable they seemed. The number of pages listed for each book is

generally just the text, not the notes, indices, bibliographies, etc.

Maintaining Confidentiality
Your lawyer is required to keep your secrets, a legal doctrine referred to as “attorney/client
privilege.” 1 This means that you can speak freely, without worrying about your lawyer being
called as a witness against you.2 In addition, everyone who works with your lawyer is bound
by the attorney/client privilege, including: other lawyers who are employed by the same office,
investigators, interpreters, paralegals, and clerical staff. They’re not allowed to share
information about you, nor can they be subpoenaed. Also, a lawyer has to protect your
confidentiality even if you don’t hire him. You might speak with one attorney, talking about the
details of your case, and then decide to hire a different lawyer. The first one has to keep your
secrets, even though you’re not working with him.

Unfortunately, it’s easy to destroy attorney/client privilege if you’re not extremely careful.
Whatever you tell your lawyer is protected, but only if you don’t tell other people. That means
you can’t share the details of your case with your family, friends, or bartender. Nor can they
sit in on meetings between you and your attorney. Once the material is no longer private
between you and your lawyer, it’s no longer privileged. Anyone other than your lawyer and
her staff can be subpoenaed—forced to testify against you or else be sent to jail for contempt.
So for their sake, as well as yours, you’ve got to restrict what you say. Besides, word gets
around and there may be someone out there who doesn’t like you—a friend of a friend of a
friend—who’d be perfectly happy to testify for the prosecution. So don’t lose control of
information that could conceivably hurt you in court.

Of course, you can tell other people when your hearings are, what you’re charged with, and
that you’re not guilty. That’s a matter of public record. But once you’ve said that much, you
have to stop. An easy way to do this is to say:

I’m sorry, but my lawyer says I can’t talk about the case, not even with my family and
closest friends. But it means a lot to me to know that you’re on my side. I hope you
can come to court and show that there’re people who believe in me.

Now, it may happen that certain family members or friends might be good witnesses on your
behalf. To include them in the case, you should first discuss with your lawyer what these
potential witnesses could testify about. If your lawyer thinks they’ll be helpful, she or her staff
will talk to them directly. This conversation—between the witness and the lawyer—will then
be protected (by the “attorney work product rule”).

Whenever you write notes or letters to your lawyer, at the top of the page put:

Confidential Attorney/Client Correspondence

If you’re writing from jail, put it on the outside of the envelope, too. And remember, jail phones
are not private—the authorities can listen in—so what you say to your lawyer on a jail phone
is not protected by the attorney/client privilege. If you’re in jail, wait until your lawyer visits you
in person before disclosing any private information.

1. Of course, there are exceptions. Your lawyer is required to act if he knows you're committing perjury (see How Much to

Tell Your Lawyer). Also, if you tell your lawyer—seriously—that you're planning to injure someone, the lawyer may be

required to inform the police (so avoid stupid jokes). Finally, if your lawyer ends up in litigation with you, he's allowed to

testify. For example, if you sue your lawyer, or if your lawyer becomes your co-defendant in a criminal case, the lawyer is

entitled to testify about things you've said or shown to him.

2. There are a few other privileges, similar to the attorney/client privilege. For example, the priest/penitent privilege prohibits

religious professionals (priests, ministers, rabbis and imams) from testifying about matters you've confided to them. And in

most jurisdictions, the doctor/patient privilege prevents medical professionals (doctors and psychotherapists, as well as the

nurses and other staff who work with them) from testifying about what you've said as a patient. However, there isn't a

privilege that relates to journalists. A reporter or photographer can be subpoenaed, along with her notes, photos, tapes, film,

etc. Some states haev passed "shield laws," that allow professional journalists to withhold the identity of a source (though

not the information provided by the source), but the trial judge may still choose to compel disclosure.