02 Apr Let’s Test Your Ethics: Confidential Conversations

Let’s Test Your Ethics

The NAJIT Observer Team 

Welcome to “Let’s Test Your Ethics”

As professional interpreters and translators, we often navigate challenging situations that test our ethical judgment. Whether it’s balancing confidentiality with transparency or maintaining impartiality in emotionally charged settings, these dilemmas are part of our work’s complexity.

This segment, “Let’s Test Your Ethics,” is designed to spark thoughtful discussion and provide a platform for our community to engage with hypothetical yet realistic scenarios. By exploring these challenges together, we can deepen our understanding of ethical principles and share insights that strengthen our collective professionalism.

Remember, there’s rarely a one-size-fits-all solution to ethical dilemmas. Your unique perspective, shaped by your experiences and values, is invaluable to this conversation.

Ethical Dilemma: Confidential Conversations

The Situation

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You are interpreting during a private meeting between a defendant and their attorney. The conversation is protected under attorney-client privilege, and you are there to ensure accurate communication.

During this meeting, the defendant admits to committing a serious crime that is completely unrelated to the current case. The admission is clear, intentional, and unexpected. You interpret it faithfully in the moment, but the weight of the information lingers afterward.

As you reflect on the situation, you are caught between two conflicting responsibilities:

• If you report what you heard, you may violate the ethical obligation to maintain confidentiality and compromise the integrity of the attorney-client relationship—potentially jeopardizing your role and the case.
• If you remain silent, you uphold your ethical duty but struggle with the burden of knowing a serious crime has been confessed and unreported.

To complicate matters, the nature of the unrelated crime is severe, and you feel it may involve victims who are unaware of the danger or harm done to them.

Question: 

Should you uphold your obligation to maintain confidentiality, knowing the information cannot be acted on, or do you report the confession in the interest of justice and public safety, risking ethical and legal repercussions?

Reflect on This:

1. What would you do in this situation?

2. How do you weigh your ethical duty to maintain confidentiality against your sense of moral responsibility?

3. How does the severity of the unrelated crime influence your decision?

4. Would consulting with a supervisor or legal advisor help resolve the dilemma, or could that complicate things further?

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Share Your Response

We’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments!

• • • How would you handle this ethical dilemma?
    • Have you faced a similar situation?
    • What principles guide your decision-making in scenarios like this?

Disclaimer

The scenarios presented in this series are fictional and intended solely for discussion and educational purposes within our professional community. They are not based on real events or specific cases but are designed to foster engagement and dialogue about ethical dilemmas that may arise in the field of judiciary interpretation and translation.

Thank you for reading! 

The NAJIT Observer Team