{"id":3198,"date":"2017-11-04T12:41:50","date_gmt":"2017-11-04T16:41:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dankrell.com\/blog\/?p=3198"},"modified":"2021-11-23T17:16:32","modified_gmt":"2021-11-23T22:16:32","slug":"revealing-confidential-information","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dankrell.com\/blog\/2017\/11\/04\/revealing-confidential-information\/","title":{"rendered":"Confidential information"},"content":{"rendered":"

A real estate agent, who allegedly represented Paul Manafort’s family, recently asserted his fiduciary privilege to avoid appearing in front of a grand jury.\u00a0 However, as Politico reported<\/a>, his efforts were thwarted by a judicial opinion, and subsequently reported to the grand jury.\u00a0 But can confidential information be disclosed?<\/p>\n

A fiduciary <\/a>is generally described as someone who acts as a custodian of their client\u2019s rights and\/or assets.\u00a0 The fiduciary has a responsibility to act with honesty and integrity, as well as act in their client\u2019s best interest and not exert influence or pressure on their client for their own or others interests.<\/p>\n

Both the National Association of Realtors and the Annotated Code of Maryland (COMAR) reference directly and indirectly a real estate agent\u2019s fiduciary obligation and handling confidential information.\u00a0 The NAR Code of Ethics<\/a> Standard of Practice 11-2 states that a Realtor (when acting as an agent or subagent) has \u201cthe obligations of a fiduciary.\u201d\u00a0 COMAR states about the brokerage relationship (MD BUSINESS OCCUPATIONS AND PROFESSIONS Code Ann. \u00a7 17-534<\/a>):<\/p>\n

\n

“Except as otherwise provided by this title or another law, keep confidential all personal and financial information received from the client during the course of the brokerage relationship and any other information that the client requests during the brokerage relationship to be kept confidential, unless (i) the client consents in writing to the disclosure of the information; or (ii) )\u00a0the information becomes public from a source other than the licensee.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Of course, all jurisdictions are different, having their own laws and customs that govern the actions of real estate agents.\u00a0 Manafort\u2019s alleged real estate agent claimed a fiduciary privilege under the DC and VA real estate statutes, which is similar to Maryland\u2019s.\u00a0 However, in a recently unsealed Memorandum Opinion <\/a>(www.dcd.uscourts.gov\/unsealed-opinions-sealed-cases), Chief Judge Beryl A. Howell of the US District Court for DC believes that real estate agents don\u2019t have an \u201cabsolute duty of confidentiality.”\u00a0 She opined that a real estate agent is not excused from complying with an obligation to respond to a grand jury.\u00a0 But what about confidential information?<\/p>\n

Judge Howell wrote:<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cThe respondents take the position that a court order compelling compliance with federal grand jury subpoena is required to overcome the confidentiality protection afforded to real estate brokerage records under District of Columbia and Virginia law. They rely on identical provisions of District of Columbia and Virginia statutes that require a real estate licensee engaged by a buyer, such as the Clients, to \u2018[m]aintain confidentiality of all personal and financial information received from the client during the brokerage relationship and any other information that the client requests during the brokerage relationship be maintained confidential unless otherwise provided by law or the buyer consents in writing to the release of such information.\u2019 D.C. Code \u00a7 42-1703(b)(1)(C); Va. Code \u00a7 54.1-2132(A)(3) (emphasis added). The government does not dispute that these statutes extend confidential treatment to the subpoenaed information, but argues that \u2018the laws do not impose an absolute duty of confidentiality on real estate agents\u2019 or excuse compliance with \u2018a legal obligation\u2014enforceable by a federal court\u2014to respond to the grand jury\u2019s request for documents, testimony, or both.\u2019\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

A real estate agent\u2019s fiduciary obligation and handling confidential information is not taken lightly.\u00a0 Thankfully, most real estate agents don\u2019t face a grand jury subpoena.\u00a0 However, during the course of daily business, a real estate agent does have an obligation (whether by NAR Code of Ethics, their local statute, or both) of keeping their client\u2019s personal and financial information confidential.<\/p>\n

Original published at https:\/\/dankrell.com\/blog\/2017\/11\/04\/revealing-confidential-information\/<\/p>\n

Copyright\u00a9 Dan Krell
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\nDisclaimer<\/a>. This article is not intended to provide nor should it be relied upon for legal and financial advice. Readers should not rely solely on the information contained herein, as it does not purport to be comprehensive or render specific advice. Readers should consult with an attorney regarding local real estate laws and customs as they vary by state and jurisdiction. Using this article without permission is a violation of copyright laws.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A real estate agent, who allegedly represented Paul Manafort’s family, recently asserted his fiduciary privilege to avoid appearing in front of a grand jury.\u00a0 However, as Politico reported, his efforts were thwarted by a judicial opinion, and subsequently reported to the grand jury.\u00a0 But can confidential information be disclosed? A fiduciary is generally described as … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Confidential information”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[303,207,13,402,23,141],"tags":[785,1080,1079,797,920,786],"class_list":["post-3198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-code-of-ethics","category-comar","category-real-estate","category-real-estate-agent","category-realtor","category-realtor-ethics","tag-code-of-ethics","tag-confidential","tag-fiduciary","tag-real-estate","tag-real-estate-agent","tag-realtor-ethics"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1VZLf-PA","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dankrell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dankrell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dankrell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dankrell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dankrell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3198"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/dankrell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3198\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6257,"href":"https:\/\/dankrell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3198\/revisions\/6257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dankrell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dankrell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dankrell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}