Topic: Suing Youth Court Because of Confidentiality Breach

Question: Recently, a youth court coordinator told me he had a case in which a youth volunteer broke confidentiality and the parents of the defendant are now threatening to sue the youth court (FYI...to date, no suit has actually been filed and the defendant is not really wanting his parents to pursue legal action). The youth volunteer was asked to leave the program. The coordinator is wondering if this has happened to any other programs (i.e., a parent has threatened to sue over a break in confidentiality). Any similar experiences to share?

Responses from Coordinators:

Tempe Justice Court Teen Court
William D. Graham
Director
Tempe Justice Court Teen Court
1845 East Broadway, Ste 8
Tempe, AZ 85282
Phone: (480) 966-0511
Fax: (480) 921-7413
DorothyTomkiewicz@mcjc.maricopa.gov

Declare your Teen Court an "Open" court as we do. All proceedings are then "public" information. If the breach was done in a personal interview and the Teen Court staff/volunteer signed a confidentiality oath, then the volunteer should be terminated and charged with contempt of court. This additional matter could be adjudicated in either Teen Court or regular Juvenile Court.

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Valencia County Teen Court
Eugene Duran
Teen Court Coordinator
Village of Los Lunas-Valencia Co.
P.O. Box 1209
Los Lunas, NM 87031
Phone: (505) 866-8041
Fax: (505) 866-8044
durane@ci.los-lunas.nm.us

This is a serious issue. Several years ago I got fired for failure to tender a file on our program.  I had concerns about confidentiality! I got my job back through the appeals process but it was quite and ordeal. Legal forums are a poor way of settling disputes. Programs need to ascertain how they are set up in terms of the "chain of command" and follow those procedures. Programs may have access to "risk management" lawyers who can give advice on this issue. There is a federal law regarding confidentiality but it is unclear whether it applies to these types of records. Remember, we are dealing with juvenile records. Patterns are not set. I have had teenagers who have gone through the teen court program and been unable to get a job due to the police report that exists. While teen court has nothing to do with the police report, we still have all this info on the defendants. How long should we keep these records? Teen courts are still in their infancy trying to grow up and in time, we will. Until then, we just have to wing it, and hope no one ever sues us.

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Irving Teen Court
Jean H. Griffin
Coordinator
City of Irving
P.O. Box 152288
Irving, TX 75015-2288
Phone: (972) 721-3601
Fax: (972) 721-2389
jgriffin@ci.irving.tx.us
http://www.ci.irving.tx.us/Courts/welcomet.htm

We do use a confidentiality form that each teen involved in any capacity w/Irving Teen Court signs. Obviously, this is a formality, but we do carefully explain the reasons cases should never be identified by name of defendant, when discussing the program outside of court. However, in 15 years of doing this, I have not experienced any problems. Although our presiding municipal judge requires that any ITC cases for defendants under 17 years w/non-traffic offenses, be heard in closed court, most of the teen court programs in Texas are open to the public for all cases. Because the defendants have each entered a plea of guilty and the teen court hearing is a "sentencing hearing", not a trial, technically they have "waived" their right to privacy, so this becomes a mute issue. Additionally, in Texas, an Open Records Act was passed in recent years, so that would probably help defend this situation. (I realize not all states handle the juvenile cases in this way.)

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Teen Court of Huerfane Co.
Michelle George
Coordinator
401 Main Street #304
Walsenburg, CO 81089
Phone: (719) 742-0240
Fax: (719) 738-1267
hcteencourt@yahoo.com

When my program first started in 1995 I had a teen prosecuting attorney approach the defendant and tell her she was going to go down in her sentencing hearing and he would see to it. Needless to say it happened in school between classes where at least 30 other students witnessed it. Our judge received a call from the mother of the defendant. We almost lost the program over it. We handled it very delicately. We removed the young man from the case, had him apologize to the defendant in written and verbal form and the judge wrote a letter to the defendant and her mother explaining the situation and what other actions may be taken against the young man. We have since established a teen attorney bar assn. for this very problem, volunteers can punish each other for unethical conduct, suspension of teen attorney priviledges, etc. I have established a bar exam and hold a formal swearing in ceremony each year. I give the teen attys bar cards and they sign a three page oath of confidentiality. I have not had this problem since 95.  In regards to the suit, the program should be well protected since it should be a non-profit organization and there is nothing to take. They would have to go after the individual teen attorney and his/her parents for defamation; at least that is my opinion.

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Winnebago County Teen Court
Shirley Zahn
Program Coordinator
504 Algoma Boulevard
Oshkosh, WI 54901
Phone: (920) 236-1119
Fax: (920) 303-3030
szahn@co.winnwbago.wi.us

Thankfully, we've never had a threat of a lawsuit in relation to a breach of confidentiality. I have had two experiences: in one instance, a defendant who was serving jury duty approached a sibling of another respondent at school and said, "are you Jane Doe's sister? I know her from Teen Court." The mother was none too happy, since the respondent was in middle school, and the sibling and my other client were both in high school. We discussed it with all parties and resolved the situation. My client truly didn't feel she had done anything wrong, and meant no harm. Situation #2, a prosecuting attorney (another middle school student) approached a potential defendant at school, because almost everyone at the school knew the boy had gotten in trouble in class...the student was cited by the school police officer, and it's a fairly small school. The volunteer offered information to the boy about Teen Court, and he interpreted that as a violation of his confidentiality. I was able to once again solve this by a conference with each party.

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starr@cgpolice.org

During the intake with the defendants, I advise them and the parent/guardian that there is no confidentiality required in Peer Court. That, in fact, there is a possibility that someone may discuss the case at a later date and it is open to the public. This is again stated in an agreement form which the defendant and parent/guardian sign.

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