“SIGNING VOLUNTARY” An issue when faced with whether to “sign voluntary” arises when deciding if this is the best and fastest route to discharge. Recently, a concerned parent and I discussed this issue. This parent believed that “signing voluntary” and immediately requesting discharge would necessarily result in the child seeing a physician within 24 hours who…
By Kyra Gurney Of the Miami Herald Handcuffs and a psych exam for a 7-year-old? Schools do that too often, parents say. A 7-year-old at Miami’s Coral Way K-8 Center was handcuffed, put in the back of a police car and taken to a hospital for an involuntary psychiatric exam after he hit and kicked a…
Every day someone who lives in Florida or a visitor to Florida is taken for involuntary psychiatric examination. Baker Act initiations occur so the POSSIBILITY of an adverse outcome is avoided. A Baker Act initiation often is only to avoid liability by police officers, or emergency room physicians, or mental health professionals. Many Baker Act…
My firm has a process so a person who should not be held under the Baker Act gets discharged quickly. A person should be released if the criteria for a Baker Act examination are not met. If the person has been living independently, has a support system available, and has had no prior mental health…
During the five-year period between 2011 and 2016, the number of children in Florida who were subjected to A Baker Act rose by almost half. During the same time, Florida’s population rose by only 5.5 percent. Several highly-publicized cases involving young children have increased public consciousness. Florida sets no minimum age at which a child…
Mental illness and legal incompetence are not the same; it does not necessarily follow that all mentally ill people are legally incompetent. Competency certification is a procedure during a Baker Act that can be misunderstood and applied unfairly. Psychiatrists at a Baker Act receiving facility certify competence. What may not be widely known is that someone can be held under a Baker Act…
An issue when faced with disputes about the meaning of words in a contract, courts may look outside the words to other evidence that speaks to the intent of the parties and whether there was truly a “meeting of the minds.” In the context of health care and informed consent, there may be issues of…
