2006 Utah Code - 78-24-8 — Privileged communications.

     78-24-8.   Privileged communications.
     There are particular relations in which it is the policy of the law to encourage confidence and to preserve it inviolate. Therefore, a person cannot be examined as a witness in the following cases:
     (1) (a) Neither a wife nor a husband may either during the marriage or afterwards be, without the consent of the other, examined as to any communication made by one to the other during the marriage.
     (b) This exception does not apply:
     (i) to a civil action or proceeding by one spouse against the other;
     (ii) to a criminal action or proceeding for a crime committed by one spouse against the other;
     (iii) to the crime of deserting or neglecting to support a spouse or child;
     (iv) to any civil or criminal proceeding for abuse or neglect committed against the child of either spouse; or
     (v) if otherwise specifically provided by law.
     (2) An attorney cannot, without the consent of his client, be examined as to any communication made by the client to him or his advice given regarding the communication in the course of his professional employment. An attorney's secretary, stenographer, or clerk cannot be examined, without the consent of his employer, concerning any fact, the knowledge of which has been acquired in his capacity as an employee.
     (3) A clergyman or priest cannot, without the consent of the person making the confession, be examined as to any confession made to him in his professional character in the course of discipline enjoined by the church to which he belongs.
     (4) A physician or surgeon cannot, without the consent of his patient, be examined in a civil action as to any information acquired in attending the patient which was necessary to enable him to prescribe or act for the patient. However, this privilege shall be deemed to be waived by the patient in an action in which the patient places his medical condition at issue as an element or factor of his claim or defense. Under those circumstances, a physician or surgeon who has prescribed for or treated that patient for the medical condition at issue may provide information, interviews, reports, records, statements, memoranda, or other data relating to the patient's medical condition and treatment which are placed at issue.
     (5) A public officer cannot be examined as to communications made to him in official confidence when the public interests would suffer by the disclosure.
     (6) A sexual assault counselor as defined in Section 78-3c-3 cannot, without the consent of the victim, be examined in a civil or criminal proceeding as to any confidential communication as defined in Section 78-3c-3 made by the victim.

Amended by Chapter 45, 1990 General Session