Q: I am the Plaintiff in a civil matter where the opposing atty. is also my patient. Is this a conflict?

A: the first thing to do is to disclose all of this to your attorney.

it would be a good idea to write down all the facts and share with your lawyer.

was it just a consultation or did he become your patient.

he is alleging you hit on him and that may be in dispute thus he would have to testify to that if it becomes an issue.

you could argue or have your atty make a motion to preclude his representation.

without all the facts it is hard to say what a court would do.

A: You need to talk to your attorney to seek their advice even if they are withdrawing. You then need to contact a member of CAOC who handles your type of case--they give free consultations. But generally, attorney's can't jump ship in the middle of a case without a reason and you need to find out what that is.

A: PS possible ethics viol by defense counsel, failure to disclose, he's a witness so he can't be counsel, but your big issue is your own lawyer leaving --then take care of the idiot.

A: HIPAA prevents disclosure of a patient’s protected health information unless a permissible use under either 45 CFR 164.502 or 45 C.F.R. § 164.512 exists. Responding to allegations of impropriety is not included within HIPAA’s permissible uses of protected health information. If questioned about accusations online or in the media, the safest response is either no response at all, a simple denial of the allegations.

The fact that an atty for an opposing party is a patient of your family practice may not, by itself, be subject to HIPPA protection. To get to protected health information, you have to examine two definitions that were in Section 1171 of Part C of Subtitle F of Public Law 104-191 (August 21, 1996): Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996: Administrative Simplification. These statutory definitions are of health information and individually identifiable health information.

“Health information means any information, whether oral or recorded in any form or medium, that–

(A) is created or received by a health care provider, health plan, public health authority, employer, life insurer, school or university, or health care clearinghouse; and

(B) relates to the past, present, or future physical or mental health or condition of any individual, the provision of health care to an individual, or the past, present, or future payment for the provision of health care to an individual.”

The attorney's identity as a patient of your practice was received by you, but does it relate to a physical or mental health condition, or to payment? Arguably not since no health condition is associated with the disclosure.

“Individually identifiable health information is information that is a subset of health information, including demographic information collected from an individual, and:

(1) Is created or received by a health care provider, health plan, employer, or health care clearinghouse; and

(2) Relates to the past, present, or future physical or mental health or condition of an individual; the provision of health care to an individual; or the past, present, or future payment for the provision of health care to an individual; and

(i) That identifies the individual; or

(ii) With respect to which there is a reasonable basis to believe the information can be used to identify the individual.”

Here, again, the main issue would be whether the attorney's status as a patient of a family clinic "relates to a physical or mental health condition". Again, arguably not since no health condition is associated with the disclosure.

So, if you are allowed to disclose the attorney/patient's existence, what do you do with it? A complaint to the State Bar might be appropriate. Rule of Professional Conduct 2-100 prohibits contact between an attorney and a party represented by an attorney about the subject of representation. Here, the subject of your representation was not directly discussed. However, the gist of the attorney's communication with you suggest that he was conducting some kind of surveillance about your case, which would be a violation of Rule 2-100.

In ordinary circumstances, a complaint to the State Bar might be appropriate.

http://www.calbar.ca.gov/Portals/0/documents/forms/2017_ComplaintFormENG_201701.pdf Here, this will almost certainly elicit a complaint by the attorney to the Medical Board about your allegedly inappropriate conduct during the examination. Whether you want to go through that is your judgment call.

Further, the fact that this attorney has a professional relationship with you is a conflict of interest for his existing client. If his client has waived the conflict of interest, that is probably the end of that issue, though.

See http://www.calbar.ca.gov/Attorneys/Conduct-Discipline/Rules/Rules-of-Professional-Conduct/Current-Rules/Rule-3-310. You, however, should sever the physician-patient relationship.