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OFFICE OF MENTAL HEALTH IS NOT REQUIRED TO ALLOW COUNSEL FROM MENTAL HEALTH LEGAL SERVICES TO PARTICIPATE IN TREATMENT PLANNING FOR A SEX OFFENDER (CT APP).

The Court of Appeals, in a full-fledged opinion by Judge Stein, over a dissenting opinion, determined that a Mental Hygiene Legal Services (MHLS) attorney need not be granted permission to attend a treatment planning session for a client in the Sex Offender Treatment Program:

We hold that MHLS counsel is not entitled to be given an interview and an opportunity to participate in treatment planning simply by virtue of an attorney-client relationship with an article 10 respondent. * * *

… [T]he statutory language of Mental Hygiene Law §§ 10.10 (b) and 29.13 (b), as well as the relevant legislative history, support the conclusion that MHLS counsel was not intended to be included, as a matter of law, within the terms “authorized representative” or “significant individual.” Thus, OMH [Office of Mental Health] is not required, upon the respondent’s request, to provide an interview and an opportunity to participate in treatment planning to MHLS counsel who has only a professional, attorney-client relationship with an article 10 respondent. However, as OMH concedes, a facility has the discretion to permit MHLS counsel to participate in treatment planning and, in a particular case, it is possible that counsel could develop and demonstrate a sufficient personal relationship with a patient such that counsel would qualify as a “significant individual . . . otherwise concerned with the welfare of the patient,” entitled to participate therein. Matter of Mental Hygiene Legal Serv. v Sullivan, 2019 NY Slip Op 01122, CtApp 2-14-19

 

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