I am a grad student. I make movies. I want to make a movie about a prisoner. The person is awaiting trial. They have not entered a plea. I want to go to the prison and speak with them. I want to film the conversation. Can I do this? How do I do this?
When a lawyer speaks with his/her client, the conversation is covered by attorney client privilege. That means that the lawyer cannot talk to anyone else about the conversation. It also means that the DA cannot subpoena the lawyer's file and the DA will never learn about the conversation unless the client waives the privilege.
Therefore, if a grad student made a movie about a defendant, the contents of all of the conversations between the defendant and the student would be subject to subpoena and admissible into evidence against the defendant, either through the tapes or by actually forcing the grad student to testify as to conversations.
As far as how to do it, it will never come up.Labels: attorney client privilege