Without Evidence of Specific Acts Demonstrating Actual or Likely Serious Bodily Injury, Discontinuation of Prescribed Medications Can Not Serve as Basis for Involuntary Hospitalization

In re B.T., 891 A.2d 1193 (N.H. 2006)

The New Hampshire Supreme Court reversed an order to involuntarily hospitalize a woman with a history of mental illness who had discontinued her prescribed medications. In 1999, a judge had ordered the woman involuntarily hospitalized after she overdosed on prescribed medications. The commitment was for a maximum of two years but she was conditionally discharged prior to the expiration of that period. In New Hampshire, an individual who has been involuntarily committed can spend the remainder of the period of commitment in the community if the individual agrees to comply with imposed conditions...

Found in DMHL Volume 25 Issue 2

Psychiatric Hospital Not Liable for the Death of a Patient Following a Struggle with Hospital Staff

Lanman v. Kalamazoo Psychiatric Hosp., No. 263665, 2006 WL 73747 (Mich. Ct. App. Jan. 12, 2006)

The Michigan Court of Appeals refused to impose liability on a psychiatric hospital for the death of a patient who had been admitted to its care.  The man had been transported by the police to the psychiatric facility, where he was found to be in need of care but capable of giving informed consent.  After he signed a voluntary admission form, the hospital admitted him, gave him medicine for back pain, and placed him in a "quiet room."...

Found in DMHL Volume 25 Issue 2

Indiana Supreme Court Rules Defendants Cannot Be Required to Show Mental Retardation by Clear and Convincing Evidence in Death Penalty Cases; Evidence Can Include Tests/Manifestations After Age 21

Pruitt v. State, 834 N.E.2d 90 (Ind. 2005)

In Atkins v. Virginia, 536 U.S. 304 (2002), the United States Supreme Court ruled that a death penalty cannot be assigned to criminal defendants who are mentally retarded, but did not define mental retardation nor establish the procedures to be used in making this determination. The Indiana Supreme Court answered a number of related questions in applying Indiana's definition of a "mentally retarded individual" as being "an individual who, before becoming twenty-two years of age, manifests: (1) significantly subaverage intellectual functioning; and (2) substantial impairment of adaptive behavior."...

Found in DMHL Volume 25 Issue 2

Security Company Can Be Held Liable for Patient's Attack on Physician, but Public Entity that Designed or Maintained the Conditions Within the Facility Can Not

Facility Liability:
Ursua v. Alameda County Med. Ctr., No. C 04-3006 BZ, 2005 WL 3002175 (N.D. Cal. Oct. 27, 2005)

County Liability:
Ursua v. Alameda County Med. Ctr., No. C 04-3006 BZ, 2005 WL 3002175 (N.D. Cal. Nov. 8, 2005)

Security Agency Liability:
Ursua v. Alameda County Med. Ctr., No. C 04-3006 BZ (N.D. Cal. Nov. 9, 2005)

Although incidents of violence are relatively infrequent in facilities that provide housing to individuals with mental illness, protecting the safety of residents and staff is a continuing concern.  After a physician was killed by a patient who had been admitted and held pursuant to California law for a seventy-two­ hour evaluation as a person who is dangerous or gravely disabled as the result of a mental disorder, family members of the physician sued the facility where the attack occurred, the County responsible for the facility, and the privately owned entity that had contracted to provide security services at the facility...

Found in DMHL Volume 25 Issue 2

Arresting Homeless Individuals for Sleeping, Sitting, or Lying on Public Property When Other Shelter Is Not Available Violates the Constitution

Jones v. Los Angeles, 444 F.3d 1118 (9th Cir. 2006)

Cities have long struggled with how to deal with their homeless populations, particularly in light of reports that a high percentage of them are experiencing a mental illness. In what has been described as the first case involving the rights of homeless people in public spaces to reach the federal appellate level, the Ninth Circuit, in a two-to-one opinion, struck down a thirty-seven-year-old Los Angeles ordinance used to clear homeless people off the streets...

Found in DMHL Volume 25 Issue 2

Mental Illness Can Serve as a Basis for Discharging Student Loans

Reynolds v. Pa. Higher Educ. Assistance Agency, 425 F.3d 526 (8th Cir. 2005)

Under federal bankruptcy law, an individual can be excused from repaying student loans if the debt "will impose an undue hardship on the debtor."  Ordinarily, the focus is on whether repaying the debt will not prevent a minimal standard of living after factoring in the individual's current and future financial resources and expenses.  The Eighth Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that the impact of the individual's mental health should also be taken into account when (1) the individual's mental health affects her past, current, and future earnings and (2) when the stress of the debt is likely to affect the individual's mental health adversely, causing an even greater decline in her earnings...

Found in DMHL Volume 25 Issue 2

School Officials Can Be Held Liable for Failing to Protect Special Education Students from Bullying

Scruggs v. Meriden Bd. of Educ., No. 3:03CV2224(PCD), 2005 WL 2072312 (D. Conn. Aug. 26, 2005)

Bullying in schools is increasingly recognized as a significant problem, with students enrolled in special education programs particularly vulnerable to this bullying. The United States District Court of Connecticut ruled that when school officials fail to take adequate steps to protect such students from bullying they may be sued for the harm resulting from this bullying...

Found in DMHL Volume 25 Issue 2

Lawsuit Can Continue that Alleges Inadequate Mental Health Care Contributed to Suicide of Inmate in Virginia Maximum Security Prison

Simmons v. Johnson, No. 7:05 CV 00053, 2005 WL 2671537 (W.D. Va. Oct. 20, 2005)

The United States Supreme Court, in Estelle v. Gamble, 429 U.S. 97 (1976), established that the Eighth Amendment is violated when prison officials are deliberately indifferent to an inmate's serious illness or injury.  This ruling has been widely interpreted to encompass an inmate's serious mental health needs as well.  When an inmate commits suicide, a lawsuit may be filed that asserts that the inmate's constitutional rights were violated because prison officials failed to provide the requisite adequate mental health services despite knowing of the inmate's mental health needs, and the absence of these services contributed to the inmate's suicide...

Found in DMHL Volume 25 Issue 2

Fourth Circuit Adopts Narrow Test for Determining Incompetence to Be Executed

Walton v. Johnson, 440 F.3d 160 (4th Cir. 2006)

Sitting en bane, the Fourth Circuit in a seven­ to-six ruling held that the test for determining whether a criminal defendant is competent to be executed is limited to whether the condemned inmate is able to comprehend that he or she is sentenced to death and the reason why...

Found in DMHL Volume 25 Issue 2

Prison Sentence Imposed on Parents Who Hosted Teen Beer Party Is Upheld

Robinson v. Commonwealth, 625 S.E.2d 651 (Va. Ct. App. 2006)

Underage drinking has been recognized as a significant public health concern. For example, the annual social cost of underage drinking in the United States has been estimated at $53 billion, including $19 billion from traffic crashes and $29 billion from violent crime. In a 2005 nationwide survey of high school seniors, 47% reported consuming alcohol in the past month. A number of law­ related efforts have been employed in an effort to curb this consumption, including imposing greater legal liability on parents who permit or promote this activity...

Found in DMHL Volume 25 Issue 2

Mental Health Provider Engaged in an "Inappropriate and Extraprofessional Relationship" with a Client Can Not Be Sued for Alienating the Client's Affections for a Spouse

Doe v. Swelling, 620 S.E.2d 750 (Va. 2005)

When a mental health provider has become sexually involved with a client, the client may have a claim for malpractice.  If this relationship results in discord between the client and the client's spouse, including divorce, the spouse may assert a similar right to sue the therapist...

Found in DMHL Volume 25 Issue 2

Court-Appointed Mental Health Evaluator Owes a Limited Duty of Care to the Person Being Examined

Harris v. Kreutzer, 624 S.E.2d 24 (Va. 2006)

A health care provider typically owes a duty of care to an individual with whom a professional relationship has been established, including a duty to exercise reasonable care in diagnosing and treating the individual.   Mental health professionals, however, are also often asked to provide court-ordered evaluations of litigants in civil proceedings or criminal defendants.  The Virginia Supreme Court has indicated that mental health professionals in this context also owe a duty of care to these individuals, albeit a limited duty, and that they may be liable for damages if that duty is breached...

Found in DMHL Volume 25 Issue 2

Police Officer Must Have Probable Cause to Handcuff Man Reported to Be Suicidal; Ruling Not Disturbed

Fisher v. Harden, 398 F.3d 837 (6th Cir. 2005), cert. denied, 126 S. Ct. 828 (2005)

When a dispatcher relays to a police officer a call for assistance, the information provided may include a "mental health code" designed to alert the responding officer that mental illness may play a role in the encounter.  In a case from Ohio, two sheriff's deputies were told incorrectly that a man had his feet tied to a set of railroad tracks and they were dispatched pursuant to a "Code 58," which indicates a possible suicide.  In actuality, a seventy-seven-year-old  retired farmer had gone out to shoot groundhogs in a rural farming area, an activity in which he routinely engaged to help protect his neighbor's crops. The man had taken with him a folding chair, his rifle, and a tripod to steady his rifle, and positioned himself upon an elevated railroad grade on a neighbor's property roughly 250 yards from a rural road.  A passerby had seen him and telephoned the Sheriff's Department. The responding deputies found the man seated in his folding chair.  From the road, they used the speaker system in their cruiser to instruct the man to come toward them.  The man stood up, gathered his belongings, and began walking along the railroad tracks towards the officers...

Found in DMHL Volume 25 Issue 2

Sex Offenders Can Be Prohibited from Living Within 2,000 Feet of a School or Registered Child Care Facility; Ruling Not Disturbed

Doe v. Miller, 405 F.3d 700 (8th Cir. 2005), cert. denied, 126 S. Ct. 757 (2005)

Every state has adopted legislation that imposes registration and community notification on certain sex offenders, and there is now an Internet-based (www.nsopr.gov) national repository that collects and makes available to the public the names and the home and work addresses of these offenders. In addition, nineteen states have passed sexual offender civil commitment statutes, several states have abolished the statute of limitations on felony child sex abuse charges (e.g., Alaska, Maine, Rhode Island), at least two states have enacted legislation to admit evidence of prior acts of child abuse at a trial where there are current charges of child sexual abuse (California and Michigan), many states have increased sentences for sex offenders (e.g., Florida), a number of states have extended or enhanced the supervision of sex offenders upon release from prison (e.g., Florida authorizes lifetime supervision), and eighteen states have established buffer zones that prohibit registered sex offenders from living near places where children congregate. Susan Broderick, Innovative Legislative Strategies for Dealing with Sexual Offenders, 18(10) AMERICAN PROSECUTORS RESEARCH INSTITUTE UPDATE 1 (2006)...

Found in DMHL Volume 25 Issue 2

Defendants Found Incompetent to Be Sentenced Also Entitled to Sell's Protections from Treatment over Objection; Ruling Not Disturbed

United States v. Baldovinos, 434 F.3d 233 (4th Cir. 2006), cert. denied, 126 S. Ct. 1407 (2006)

The United States Supreme Court, in Sell v. United States, 539 U.S. 166 (2003), held that governmental officials, under limited circumstances, can obtain a court order to administer over objection antipsychotic drugs to restore the competence of defendants found incompetent to stand trial, even though it had not been shown they were dangerous to themselves or others.  Because it believed that most cases can and should be resolved by first focusing on the defendant's dangerousness to self or others, an independent basis for forcible medication established in Washington v. Harper, 494 U.S. 210 (1990), the Court indicated that it thought few Sell orders would be needed and that the protections it mandated would limit the imposition of what was acknowledged to be a significant invasion of a defendant's constitutionally protected liberty interest in avoiding the involuntary administration of these drugs and their side effects...

Found in DMHL Volume 25 Issue 2

Supreme Court Upholds Authority of Police to Enter Home Without Warrant to Protect Occupant Objectively Believed to Be Seriously Injured or Imminently Threatened with Such Injury

Brigham City, Utah v. Stuart, 126 S. Ct. 1943 (2006)

In a unanimous ruling of potential relevance to individuals involved in an altercation or a heated dispute in their home or while visiting another individual in that person's home, the United States Supreme Court ruled that police may enter a home without a warrant when they have an objectively reasonable basis for believing that an occupant is seriously injured or imminently threatened with such injury...

Found in DMHL Volume 25 Issue 2

Monetary Damages Can Be Recovered from a State Under the ADA When Disability Discrimination Also Violates the Constitution

United States v. Georgia, 126 S. Ct. 877 (2006)

Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) places limits on the ability of public entities, including states, to exclude or deny benefits to an individual with a mental or physical disability.  Although Title II authorizes private citizens to file lawsuits seeking to recover monetary damages from public entities that violate the ADA, the Eleventh Amendment of the federal Constitution recognizes the sovereign immunity of the states and generally provides them with immunity from such suits...

Found in DMHL Volume 25 Issue 2

U.S. Attorney General's Effort to Block Oregon's Assisted Suicide Law Through Physician Registration Requirements Struck Down as Exceeding His Authority

Gonzalez v. Oregon, 126 S. Ct. 904 (2006)

Physician-assisted suicide was authorized in Oregon in 1994 following a state-wide voter referendum, and reaffirmed following a second referendum in 1997. The Oregon Death with Dignity Act permits an individual who has been diagnosed with a terminal illness that will lead to death in six months to obtain from a willing physician a prescription for a medication that will hasten death, although the individual must self-administer the medication...

Found in DMHL Volume 25 Issue 2

Supreme Court Upholds Arizona's Ability to (1) Limit the Scope of the Insanity Defense and (2) Preclude the Use of Mental Health Expert Testimony in Conjunction with a Mens Rea Determination

Clark v. Arizona, 126 S. Ct. 2709 (2006)

In its recently completed term that began October 3, 2005, and ended June 29, 2006, the United States Supreme Court decided sixty-nine cases with a signed opinion.  After an unprecedented eleven years without a change in its membership, these opinions were closely watched to see whether the Court's direction would change with the addition of Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., and Samuel A. Alito, Jr.  For many mental health professionals, the case of greatest interest, Clark v. Arizona, was issued on the final day of the term...

Found in DMHL Volume 25 Issue 2

Psychiatrist's Professional License Permanently Revoked for Sexual Misconduct

Schechter v. Ohio State Med. Bd., No. 04AP-1115, 2005 WL 1869733 (Ohio Ct. App. Aug. 9, 2005)

Licensing boards and reviewing courts have become less tolerant of sexual conduct by a mental health professional during therapy, with a number of jurisdictions  adopting a per se rule that sex with a client violates professional rules of conduct.  However, less attention has been given to the sanctions to be attached to such misconduct, particularly when the misconduct can be construed as a single instance rather than a pattern of misconduct...

Found in DMHL Volume 25 Issue 1