[NoLeafClover]

I was just wondering can therapy records be used against you if you go into a custody battle? Or are they sealed?

Hello, NoLeafClover. The Florida Psychotherapist-patient privilege is here: http://law.onecle.com/florida/evidence/90.503.html

Please note section (4)(b) For communications made in the course of a court-ordered examination of the mental or emotional condition of the patient.

Mental illness is a factor in custody disputes: (g) The mental and physical health of the parents. See: http://www.childcustodycoach.com/florida/

A court may order an independent evaluation to determine if the parent suffering from mental illness has the illness under control. If so, the court should not view mental illness as a determining factor.

Minnesota has a similar provision. "The issue is the child's best interests, so if the mentally ill parent is managing their illness (with proper medication, following a caregiver's recommendations, etc.) then it does not compromise the child's best interests to be in the care of that parent, and may not provide the other parent (Parent B) with a 'trump card.'" See: http://www.minnesotadivorceblog.com/...-mental-i.html

I found an old Florida case that said the Florida Psychotherapist-patient privilege is not waived in a child custody case. If that case is still the law, it would make the mental health records unavailable. Makes some sense since the question is how the parent is functioning now.

Good luck.

[amandalouise]

Originally Posted by NoLeafClover

I was just wondering can therapy records be used against you if you go into a custody battle? Or are they sealed?

all states have different rules about what and why therapists must release their records on their clients for. In general if the court subpoenas the records the mental health agency must hand them over to the court or be in contempt of court. contempt of court carries fines and jail time to those that dont comply.

we went to court here on behalf of a woman who moved here from florida. it was a domestic violence case where the abusive dad was trying to obtain custody. His lawyer introduced into the court an accusation of her mental stability. so the court subpoenaed her florida records. the mother retained custodial rights the father recieved supervised visitation

another case we had was where we had to hand over our files to the florida courts because the family used to live here then moved to florida. the side trying to obtain custody brought up the issue of the moms mental stability. the court subpoenaed her mental records from all states that they had lived in. She lost custody.

we work closely with social services here and when ever they require their clients to undergo a psych eval the psychiatrist always contacts us for the clients records so that their evaluation is thorough because here psych evals include a section on past history.

there is privacy laws but those laws do not cover things like police, court, child abuse, homicide, and other legal matters.

contact your lawyer and they will tell you if your treatment professionals will have to turn over your mental health records as part of the case.

As a former lawyer who has represented clients in custody disputes, I point out the court has other factors to consider besides the mental health of the parties. More than once I was involved in cases where expert testimony established the parent was managing his/her mental illness well. Even so, that parent lost custody. The court determined custody based on other factors the court found favored the other parent.

I agree with amandalouise that retaining a good domestic relations attorney is plus. No doubt, dealing with a mental illness is very difficult in custody cases. That said, it is important to present pertinent information about all factors the court is to consider.

I wish you well.

[Rhiannonsmoon]

Byz that is really good information and from someone as learned as you I would take it seriously. You really are important to have here on PC. And I now understand how I learned from you that "less is more". Thank you for being so good to everyone at PC

Rhiannon