Privileged communication

Communication that occurs in a setting of legal orother recognized professional confidentiality. Designating a communication asprivileged allows the speakers to resist legal process to disclose itscontents. When communications are termed privileged, a breach by one party ofthe concurrent confidentiality can result in a civil suit in tort by the otherparty to the communication. Communications that are privileged may include: 1.communications in the sanctity of the marital relationship; 2. communicationsbetween physicians and their patients; 3. communications of psychologicalcounselors and their clients; 4. priest-and-penitent communications; 5.communications between attorney and client, and 6. in some jurisdictions,communications between journalists and their sources.