Massachusetts Extends Protections for Counseling Records of Survivors of Sexual Assault
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court has ruled in In the Matter of a Motion to Compel, SJC-13336 that the Superior Court could not order a Massachusetts counseling center to turn over, at the behest of a Rhode Island court, counseling records of the alleged minor victim of a sexual assault that occurred in Rhode Island,… More
Does the “compelling need” for patient records by a state body that oversees and regulates physicians trump the statute that protects the confidentiality of psychotherapy records? Not in Massachusetts, according to a September 2, 2010 decision of the Supreme Judicial Court, Board of Registration in Medicine v. John Doe, No. SJC-10556.
At issue in this case were the treatment practices of a board-certified psychiatrist who specialized in “pain management.” Due to a concern that inappropriate prescriptions for pain medication were being written and that Doe himself was impaired,… More