Log In
Here’s a question I was asked today:
“If I was to counsel somebody and they told me that they were going to break a law, what would I do? Would I go to the police?”
This is an important point.
If a client intends to commit a crime, or says they might harm someone, you have a duty to inform the authorities.
You should tell your client in advance that you aren’t protected as a lawyer is, and that you must obey the law.
These things are best done at the outset by giving the client written details of how your service works.
Most counsellors find the idea of ‘ratting’ on a client unpalatable, and most of us never find ourselves in that situation.
You will need to decide what circumstances would merit speaking to the authorities.
But the law will increasingly require that people in positions of trust, such as doctors and nurses – and therefore counsellors – must not hide a crime.
In an era of presumed terrorism threat, governments will introduce additional laws about the need to inform on others, and penalties for not doing so. But we’ve all found ourselves saying what we’d do if we found the person who scratched our car – though we’d probably never act on that impulse. So we need to avoid a knee-jerk reaction to a minor threat that is unlikely to occur.
