Do you ever meet with parent lawyer?

Specialties School

Published

Hello,

A lawyer, representing one of our student's parents, is asking for a sit-down meeting with me to garner information for a custody dispute. My inclination is to refuse to meet with them without legal representation from the school also being present, but my administrator does not feel this is necessary. Have any of you ever met with student/family lawyers? Do you have your own legal representation there as well.

Any advice is appreciated.

No way would I agree unless district lawyer and Admin were present.

Specializes in School Nursing.

Big Old NOPE!!!

Go ahead and contact the school district office's lawyer directly. Let them know what is happening. So what if your principal or whoever gets mad. Besides, sometimes...

"It's easier to ask for forgiveness than ask for permission." <---- Best advice I received from a mentor (works for some things, not all, of course....) ?

Specializes in School Nurse.

The district lawyer’s name is very hush hush here. Staff (except for admin) are not supposed to contact them.

Thankfully the higher ups ended forwarding an email to me and forgot to delete her name/contact info.

She said do NOT meet w an outside lawyer.

Working as a healthcare provider in a non medical setting sure has its own set of legal and organizational concerns.

2 Votes
Specializes in ER.

Easy, make him subpoena you.

2 Votes
On 2/12/2020 at 12:40 PM, seedanurse said:

I cannot figure out how to reply to individual comments (first post) but yes, we do have a signed release of information stipulating we may communicate with the lawyer (signed by dad) buuuuut, there are already custody difficulties and I am not sure if dad technically has the authority to release the student's records.

The school I work in has a dysfunctional power-struggle going on, and I couldn't figure out if my directions were coming from the admin, office manager, or our district. Admin is adamant that we follow the chain of command, which is normally valid, but the problem is that I don't trust the chain of command. I ended up contacting our district head and they said DO NOT talk to the lawyer, and instructed me to wait to receive a subpoena or deposition. Which is the answer I was hoping for.

Thank you for the input, and validation, as I was feeling like the lone voice of reason over here.

What a ridiculous waste of your time and focus.

What is going on with the power struggle at your school?

1 Votes

Life has taught me to never speak to an attorney without representation for myself or the institution. No exceptions.

2 Votes
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