727.8—Confidential and privileged character of service provided.
All information and files pertaining to the persons served will be treated as confidential and privileged in the legal sense as outlined in the Code of Professional Responsibility, as opposed to confidential in the military sense of security information. These privileged matters may not be disclosed to anyone by personnel rendering the service, except upon the specific permission of the person concerned, and disclosure thereof may not be lawfully ordered by superior military authority. This restriction does not prohibit providing the nonprivileged statistical data required by § 727.13 of this part. Protection of the confidences of a legal assistance client is essential to the proper functioning of the legal assistance program in order to assure all military personnel, regardless of grade, rank, or position, that they may disclose frankly and completely all material facts of their problem to those rendering the service without fear that their confidence will be abused or used against them in any way. While case files are not subject to the control of the Department of the Navy and therefore do not constitute a “system of records” within the meaning of the Privacy Act of 1974 (5 U.S.C. 552a ), no information which identifies an individual legal assistance client by name or any other particular, such as social security number, shall be extracted from the case files and incorporated into any file or index system aside from or in addition to the information contained on the legal assistance form (NAVJAG 5801/9) or locally used equivalent. Strict adherence to the foregoing will ensure compliance with the Privacy Act. Administrative and clerical personnel assigned to legal assistance offices shall maintain the confidential nature of matters handled.