Lawyer confidential email was fowarderd to many people

That is just a general disclaimer on many documents. Kind of like "Lawyer services aren't any offered better than any other legal services etc...".

What matters is the content in the email. Did it contain some kind of information that could be confidential? The HOA members do have the right to know if their HOA is involved in a legal matter. They just may not necessarily need to know certain details.

Not knowing what was contained in the email. I wouldn't concern myself with that general disclaimer thing.

Not much can be done about it now. Take steps to ensure it doesn't happen again move forward. It's highly unlikely that anyone will "get in trouble" over it.

Well, it's done now. But if the topic of the email involved privileged info (such as ongoing litigation or enforcement action being taken against a member of the HOA), then yes, you've just breached attorney-client privilege which could compromise the HOA's ability to win their case.

Cathy's Rules for Life #23: "Email: Think Twice, Click Once."

Regardless of how this attorney's email fell into people's hands, all recipients should do as the last line says: Immediately write the attorney who sent this. Recipients should say that she or he was not one of the intended recipients, and nothing more.

It is a bad thing, particularly since some kind of "investigation" is underway. Hopefully the attorney informs the HOA president that he or she has just held the HOA out to liability and also given the person under investigation grounds to appeal any unfavorable outcome of the investigation.

It's not clear what the issue is.

If I hire a lawyer to do some work for me (say, give an opinion on the meaning of a regulation) he sends me a letter. With the usual boilerplate at the bottom.

I can then copy and send the letter to anyone I want. I paid for the work, I own the work product.

Right?

I work in an office with lots of lawyers and we use similar language in our emails because (1) much of what’s discussed IS confidential and improper disclosure could be covered by other state and federal law, which can get you in a world of trouble (2) disclosure of the wrong information could affect subsequent legal action – what if the information concerns action being taken on the association’s behalf against, say a delinquent homeowner? (3) the attorney could get in trouble with the bar association if confidential information is leaked to unauthorized people.

I’m not an attorney, but because I work for them, I’m considered their agent, and therefore, he/she can get into trouble if I were to send emails with confidential information to any damned body, so that stunt would get me fired. Can’t have that, since I have a mortgage to feed (!)

In this case, if I were the attorney, I’d drop this association like a bad habit and would probably take legal action against the HOA president and possibly the association. That will get ugly very quickly and the association might be on the hook for far more than whatever the investigation might uncover.

If you’re on the board, remove this president from his/her post immediately – you probably won’t be able to remove him/her from the board itself (only homeowners can do that). I don’t care why he/she felt it was important for the people “not involved in the investigation” to get the letter – it’s none of their business! When you’re on the board, you’re held to a higher standard and the fact that this is an investigation should indicate that legal action is quite possible, if not happening already, especially if the attorney is involved. This is why board officers, especially presidents cannot and should act as lone rangers, and the entire board needs to know what’s going on and why.

The HOA in question has a President who appears to be ignorant of the law and is possibly seeking to annoy and harass members. Often, the more legal trouble a HOA's board stirs up among members, the more billable hours this is for a HOA attorney. I believe many HOA attorneys would view this HOA as a cash cow. The HOA attorney in question may start by billing 15 minutes for every email she receives saying a person was not an intended recipient.

I agree with the rest of what Shelia wrote.