The legal profession in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Attorney-client privilege in Bosnia and Herzegovina: scope, duration and exceptions

Author: Azur Prnjavorac, attorney at law in Tuzla · Published: 19 August 2026 · Legal basis: Law on the Legal Profession of the FBiH (Official Gazette of the FBiH, No. 1/25) · Bosanski · Deutsch

Attorney-client privilege is the foundation of the relationship between a client and an attorney: without the certainty that what you tell your attorney stays between the two of you, there is no honest disclosure of the facts, and without the full facts there is no quality legal protection. That is why the law does not leave confidentiality to the attorney's goodwill, but imposes it as an express duty, protects it through the rules on searches of law offices, and punishes its breach as one of the most serious violations of an attorney's duties.

Concept and purpose of attorney-client privilege

Attorney-client privilege, known in Bosnian law as "advokatska tajna" and in comparative law as legal professional privilege or the attorney's duty of professional secrecy, is the attorney's obligation to keep confidential all information obtained while providing legal assistance to a client. It is not a privilege of the attorney but a right of the client: what is protected is the trust of the person who has disclosed to the attorney the most sensitive details of their life, family, property or business, relying on those details remaining protected.

Its purpose is twofold. First, the client can tell the attorney all the facts, including those that do not work in the client's favour, because only an attorney who knows the whole picture can assess the prospects and choose the right strategy. Second, the privilege is a precondition of the right to a defence and of the right to a fair trial: if an attorney could be examined about what a client had confided, defence before a court would lose its meaning. For that reason the confidentiality of the attorney-client relationship is also protected through the case law of the European Court of Human Rights, as part of the right to respect for correspondence and the right to a fair trial under the European Convention.

Legal framework: the new FBiH Law on the Legal Profession of 2025

In the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, attorney-client privilege is governed by the new Law on the Legal Profession of the FBiH, published in the Official Gazette of the FBiH, No. 1/25 of 10 January 2025, which replaced the previous Law on the Legal Profession of 2002. The new law regulates the privilege more precisely than the earlier rules: it clearly defines its scope, the circle of persons bound by it, its duration and a closed list of exceptions.

The duty of confidentiality is anchored in two places. Article 16, point c) of the Law lists keeping the attorney-client privilege among the four fundamental duties of an attorney, alongside providing legal assistance professionally and conscientiously and protecting the reputation of the profession. Article 23 then regulates the privilege in detail:

The manner of keeping the privilege and the handling of confidential information are regulated in more detail by the Statute of the FBiH Bar Association and the Code of Attorney Ethics, adopted by the Bar Association of the Federation of BiH. Similar rules apply in the other two legal orders in Bosnia and Herzegovina: in Republika Srpska under the Law on the Legal Profession of Republika Srpska and in the Brčko District under the Law on the Practice of Law in the Brčko District (both texts in Bosnian), so the client is protected regardless of where in Bosnia and Herzegovina the proceedings take place.

What attorney-client privilege covers

The law defines the scope of the privilege broadly and deliberately does not enumerate categories of data. The following is protected:

Everything the client has entrusted. Orally at a meeting, by telephone, in writing, by e-mail or through an authorised representative (for example an attorney-in-fact, a legal guardian or the director of a legal entity). Nor does it matter whether the information appears significant for the case at first sight: everything is confidential.

Everything the attorney has learned or obtained independently. The privilege is not limited to what the client says. It also covers information the attorney has obtained by inspecting case files, land registers, business records, medical records, witness statements and expert reports, as well as the attorney's own notes, draft submissions and legal analyses prepared for the client.

The very fact of contacting an attorney. In practice, even the information that a particular person has contacted an attorney at all, what the consultation concerned and whether representation followed is treated as confidential. Our office therefore does not confirm the identity of its clients to third parties without their consent, because the mere information that someone is looking for an attorney for a divorce, a probate case or an employment dispute can already harm the client.

Whether a power of attorney is ultimately signed is equally irrelevant to the scope of the privilege: confidentiality also covers the preparation of representation, and therefore the first consultation after which the client decides not to engage the attorney.

Who is bound by the privilege

The duty of confidentiality does not rest on the attorney alone. The law extends the circle of persons bound by it to everyone who may come into contact with confidential information in the work of the office:

The attorney is the primary bearer of the duty and is at the same time responsible for the organisation of work: the attorney must ensure that the privilege is also kept by all staff of the office, the joint law office or the law firm.

Current and former staff. Under Article 23, paragraph (2) of the Law, confidentiality also binds other persons who work or used to work in the law office, joint law office or law firm. This includes administrative and technical staff, and the duty does not end with the termination of employment.

Legal associates and attorney trainees. The provisions on keeping the attorney-client privilege apply, mutatis mutandis, to legal associates (Article 75 of the Law) and to attorney trainees (Article 78 of the Law), who are also subject to disciplinary liability for a breach.

For the client this means, in practical terms, that confidentiality does not depend on whether the case was handled personally by the attorney, by a trainee who prepared a draft submission or by the person who logged the incoming mail. All of them are bound by the same duty.

How long the duty of confidentiality lasts

The law expressly provides that the privilege applies "in the preparation of representation, in the course of representation and after the representation has ended". It follows that the duty:

Begins before the power of attorney, with the very first disclosure of information for the purpose of preparing representation, and therefore already at the first consultation.

Does not end with the closure of the case. A final judgment, a settlement, or the termination or revocation of the power of attorney does not release the attorney from the duty. The privilege outlives the mandate.

Does not end when the attorney stops practising. An attorney who retires or is removed from the Register of Attorneys remains bound by the privilege, as do former staff of the office. There is no time limit, so legal scholars rightly say that the privilege even outlives the client: not even the client's death entitles the attorney to speak freely about the client's confidential matters.

Connected with the duration of the privilege is the duty to keep the case file: under Article 22, paragraph (5) of the Law, the attorney must keep, for five years from the final conclusion of the proceedings or from the termination or revocation of the power of attorney, the files of a client who has not collected them, and throughout that period they remain under the regime of the privilege.

The five statutory exceptions: when the duty of confidentiality ends

So that the privilege does not become absolute even where it would shield injustice, the law provides a closed list of five exceptions. Article 23, paragraph (3) of the FBiH Law on the Legal Profession provides that the duty to keep the attorney-client privilege ends only in the following situations:

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What all the exceptions have in common is the principle of proportionality: none of them turns the attorney into a free narrator of the case; each merely permits disclosure of the confidential information only in the part and to the extent necessary for the specific purpose. Outside these five situations, disclosure is not permitted to anyone: not to the media, not to the client's family members, not to any other authority.

Procedural protection: search of a law office and the attorney as a witness

The duty of confidentiality would not be worth much if the state could reach confidential files simply by walking into the office. The FBiH Law on the Legal Profession therefore also protects the privilege procedurally.

Inspection and search only by court order. Files, documents and other case data kept in a law office may be inspected only under the conditions prescribed for a search (Article 36 of the Law). A search of an attorney or a law office may be ordered exclusively by the competent court, where the conditions of the Criminal Procedure Code are met (Article 37 of the Law). Neither the police nor the prosecutor's office may enter the office and seize files on their own, without a court order.

Presence of the bar association. The court that orders a search notifies the regional bar association, and the search may not begin or proceed without the presence of an authorised representative of the association, unless the representative fails, without a justified reason, to respond to a proper and timely invitation. The association's representative guarantees that the search will not turn into a general trawl through the files of other clients.

Limitation to the court order. The search is limited strictly to the inspection of those documents and items that are directly connected with the criminal offence in question and that are individually listed in the court order. The confidentiality of documents and items must not be violated to the client's detriment.

Inadmissibility of unlawful evidence. Evidence obtained contrary to these rules cannot be used in proceedings against either the attorney or the attorney's client. This removes any benefit from an unlawful intrusion into the privilege.

Connected with the protection of the privilege are also the rules of procedural law under which defence counsel cannot be examined as a witness about what the suspect or the accused has confided, unless the accused so requests, as well as the rules exempting attorneys from the duty to testify about information learned in the practice of their profession. To this should be added Article 24 of the FBiH Law on the Legal Profession: an attorney cannot be held criminally liable for a legal opinion expressed while providing legal assistance, before a court or elsewhere, which ensures that the attorney can defend the client freely and without fear of prosecution for a stated position.

Breach of the privilege and sanctions

The seriousness of the duty is best seen in the sanctions attached to its breach, on three separate tracks:

Disciplinary liability. A breach of the duty to keep the attorney-client privilege is expressly defined as a serious violation of the attorney's duties and of the reputation of the profession (Article 111, paragraph (3), point d) of the Law). For a serious violation, the disciplinary bodies of the bar association may impose a fine of BAM 500 to BAM 10,000, or a ban on practising and removal from the Register of Attorneys for a period of six months to five years (Article 114 of the Law). Legal associates and trainees who breach the privilege are also subject to disciplinary liability.

Criminal liability. Unauthorised disclosure of a secret learned by the attorney in the practice of the profession may also constitute the criminal offence of unauthorised disclosure of a professional secret under criminal legislation, which raises the protection of confidentiality to the criminal-law level.

Civil liability. A client who suffers damage through the disclosure of privileged information may claim compensation from the attorney under the general rules on liability. Precisely for such cases the law prescribes mandatory professional liability insurance, with a minimum insured sum of BAM 250,000 per insured event for an attorney and BAM 1,000,000 for a law firm (Articles 39 and 40 of the Law), so the client does not depend on the personal means of an individual attorney.

Attorney-client privilege in digital communication

Today most communication between client and attorney takes place electronically: by e-mail, messages, video calls and the exchange of scanned documents. The duty of confidentiality does not depend on the form of communication, so all of this enjoys the same protection as a private conversation at the office.

For the attorney this also means a technical obligation: the office must be organised so that confidential data are protected from access by third parties, in line also with the Law on the Protection of Personal Data of BiH (text in Bosnian), from the way electronic files are stored and computer access is controlled to the careful handling of documents sent electronically. Our office exchanges confidential documents exclusively through direct channels with the client, does not discuss cases on social media and does not disclose the identity of a client even in replies to enquiries from third parties. Clients from the diaspora, who communicate with us mostly electronically, in English or German, enjoy exactly the same protection as clients who come in person.

Attorney-client privilege in the work of our office

Law Office Prnjavorac in Tuzla has been in continuous practice since 1993. Attorneys Alma Prnjavorac and Azur Prnjavorac (attorney at law and mediator) are entered in the Register of Attorneys and practise under the FBiH Law on the Legal Profession, the Statute and the Code of Attorney Ethics, including all the confidentiality rules described on this page. We represent clients before courts and other authorities throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina: in Tuzla, Sarajevo, Mostar, Zenica, Banja Luka, Bihać, Bijeljina, the Brčko District and all other cities. Client correspondence is handled daily in English and German as well as in Bosnian.

Questions and answers about attorney-client privilege

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