With a privacy act attached to everything now including bank accounts, would it be violating a person's right for a lawyer to snoop around and track down a person's bank account, and then freeze the account through court, without the person knowing?

Without me getting into the reason why it was done, I just want to know if it's legal.

And no, it wasn't my account.

The law guarantees the privacy of your relationship with the bank. Any bank worth its salt, by the way, would have operated with the utmost of discretion prior to privacy laws.

It does not, however, prevent a lawyer from snooping around. I am guessing the lawyer had a reason. It's not hard for a lawyer to discover a bank account number for someone who has previously written his client a check.

Courts or other government authorities can force a bank to freeze or place a lien on a bank account for several reasons. Among the most prominent are taxes owed to the IRS and an arrears balance for child support. This is done prior to informing the bank account holder for obvious reasons.

For my two cents worth, attorneys often seem to operate above the law. If this is the case here, I hope the guy gets disbarred. But I'll bet he's on solid ground.

Thanks Fuse, I'm gonna tell her to talk to a lawyer to see if her rights were violated by the lawyer and the bank. After all, most of the money belonged to her minor disabled son.

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Originally posted by honilov:
With a privacy act attached to everything now including bank accounts, would it be violating a person's right for a lawyer to snoop around and track down a person's bank account, and then freeze the account through court, without the person knowing?

Without me getting into the reason why it was done, I just want to know if it's legal.

And no, it wasn't my account.

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Legality depends on the circumstances. Bank accounts are fairly commonly frozen during divorce and child custody proceedings, to avoid the risk of assets being concealed or squandered while ownership is in dispute. I'm sure any divorce attorney could tell you more about it...

Alan Moore