Confidentiality and Fatality Review
Robin H. Thompson, Esq.
Consultant, NDVFRI

How effective can a fatality review be if some of the information is confidential and the team cannot have complete access to it? When does the team cross the line into discovering or discussing information that is private and should be kept out of the public eye? What impact will the disclosure of information to a fatality review team have on a domestic violence victim’s desire to access a shelter, to call law enforcement or to hire a lawyer?

Laws regarding an individual’s right to privacy and the public’s right to know attempt to balance these interests. Often positioned between these two interests is the work of the domestic violence fatality review team. When teams meet, they process all levels of information, some public, some private and some in between. It is essential that the fatality review teams respect both the privacy of the persons whose lives, and deaths, it studies…