Advocacy Confidential – December 2024

By Carol Schrader
Senior Attorney, National Training and Consultation, Victim Rights Law Center

Dear Fierce Survivors, Advocates, and Allies, 

Welcome back to my blog series – Advocacy Confidential. Where we sip tea¹ and muse together about the role of confidentiality in our violence-abolition movement. 

Are you hunkering down into the slower, more insular rhythms of Autumn-into-Winter? In Portland, Oregon, where I live and work, winter is coming: The leaves are almost done dropping, the skies are overcast, rain is falling regularly, and the mountain passes are snow-covered. And a cyclone is spinning off the coast. The usual and the unexpected. Our homes. Our communities. Our country. 

My usual includes thinking and talking about how we can well-serve survivors of sexual assault while protecting their confidentiality. I love the day-to-day of supporting people as they think about confidentiality and trauma-informed advocacy. Sometimes, though, some confidentiality practice is unexpectedly fabulous. 

Exciting news in the world of Advocacy Confidential – just this month: 

• An organization whose leadership includes “Confidentiality Warrior” holds quarterly confidentiality conversations where they focus on survivors privacy, including how to protect the privacy of shelter residents and other survivors.  
• A statewide coalition is considering a plenary at its future annual conferences to discuss the impact of confidentiality on survivor advocacy in their state.² 
• The Oregon Supreme Court³ just affirmed Oregon’s victim-advocate privilege⁴ – a privilege that is broader than most privileges, including the attorney-client privilege. Some language from their opinion:⁵  
  • “Most evidentiary privileges are limited to protecting ‘confidential communications’ and do not have any additional protection for ‘records’ comparable to [the victim-advocate confidentiality and privilege provisions].” (At 71.) 
  • “Protecting the privacy of victims was thought to be necessary to avoid the ‘chilling effect’ that otherwise would prevent survivors of domestic violence⁶ from seeking the support services they need. Broadly protecting all records created or maintained in the course of providing services to any victim who sought services from a qualified victim services program avoids that chilling effect.” (At 74.) 
  • “[The privilege and confidentiality laws] protect all records created or maintained in the course of providing services regarding a victim of domestic violence without any distinction based on the nature of those records.” (At 75.) 

So, Fierce Readers, unexpected and welcomed encouragement in the usual routine of Advocacy Confidential. Just this month. None too soon. 

If you have examples of unexpected or even exciting developments in our work together on Advocacy Confidential, please let VRLC’s TA team know at [email protected]. And, as usual, we are here to help with any of the issues that come up with your advocacy on behalf of survivors. 

Please join in the conversation. And when you write in or reach out, feel free to use a pseudonym that’s powerful or fun or whatever you want it to be. 

Yours, 

Carol Confidential 

¹ With this post, I like to imagine your beverages are mulled and warm.

² My Oregon Law Center colleague and I co-facilitated a similar training on privilege and subpoenas last month. We premiered the “mandate caterpillar” (and subsequent butterflies) in a two-part workshop that was reportedly helpful and, per one supportive evaluation, even hilarious.

³ You can read the full opinion here.

⁴ The statutory privilege is found at ORS 40.252.

⁵ Credit for this success is due to Oregon Law Center, the domestic violence program who defended the privilege, and other stakeholders across the state. Brilliant!

⁶ The opinion focuses on “domestic violence” services because the underlying case involved a domestic violence service provider. The privilege statute covers “services to victims of domestic violence, sexual assault or stalking.”

Carol Confidential (nee Schrader) (she/her) is a Senior Attorney on Victim Rights Law Center’s national training and consultation team. She helps attorneys and other victim service providers across the country provide legal advocacy for and protect the confidentiality of survivors of sexual assault, dating and domestic violence, and stalking. She lives in the Pacific Northwest. She enjoys her hiking and book groups, culinary adventures, yoga, and quiet evenings at home.