There are two governing laws under the mandatory reporting exception rule.
1. is for the confession of someone.
2. is the confidential communication that takes place within a religion. If the religions normal procedure is to keep a matter confidential that is the requirement.
Confidentiality doesn't mean 1 person. As spoken of earlier a lawyer can communicate with colleagues without the privilege or confidential communication being lifted. I would even take it further. Let's say you sue someone with a lawyer's help. While preparing for the case the lawyer will interview witnesses and gather evidence. When he is interviewing witnesses he may speak about what his client told him. Does that mean that the attorney-client privilege is lifted? Or while deposing the defendant the lawyer asks questions based on what his client told him, would that remove the privilege?
The other argument is that during the punitive stage that the plaintiff's attorney wanted the jury to look at the JWs religious beliefs which have been ruled unconstitutional because no civil court can determine if a religious belief is correct or valid.
And the other arguments is that the mother of Alexis had the knowledge and responsibility to prevent her daughter from being molested by the stepfather. That twice child services investigated and twice no charges were brought. So the proximate cause of injury for Alexis was that of her mother turning her over to the stepfather.
