Florida/Georgia Personal Injury & Workers Compensation

...(2006) (privilege with respect to trade secrets); § 90.6063(7), Fla. Stat. (2006) (providing that where a deaf person communicates through an interpreter in circumstances where the communication would be privileged, the privilege applies to the interpreter as well); § 456.059, Fla....

...treatment plan and current physical and mental condition. § 394.4615(9), Fla. Stat. (2000). While parents are entitled to hospital records of their children, these do not include psychiatric care records. See § 395.3025(1)-(2), Fla. Stat. (2000). Section 456.059 provides that "[c]ommunications between a patient and a psychiatrist......

...There is no comparable language in the psychotherapist-patient privilege. [6] Although not an issue in this case, Florida law already addresses the issue of disclosure by a psychiatrist where necessary to give warning of a threat of physical harm. § 456.059, Fla....

...d her that Defendant had threatened to kill her. The issue we must resolve, which appears to be one of first impression, is whether the testimony of Dr. Baskaran and his nurse regarding the threats was admissible during Defendant's trial pursuant to section 456.059, Florida Statutes (2001), which establishes an exception to the psychotherapist-patient privilege. We will limit our decision to resolution of this narrow issue. The broader issue of whether, once notification is made to the victim and law enforcement, section 456.059 allows disclosure for other purposes is not before us and is an issue we do not decide. Defendant urges that we very narrowly limit application of the exception established in section 456.059 to the report by the psychiatrist to the victim and law enforcement....

...against the victim. In order to resolve the issue before us, we will discuss privileges under Florida law and the standard by which we should interpret them. Following that discussion, we will analyze the particular provisions of sections 90.503 and 456.059 wherein we find the psychotherapist-patient *854 privilege and the dangerous patient exception....

...*855 Specifically, the common law did not recognize a psychotherapist-patient privilege. Therefore, when the Legislature enacted section 90.503, Florida Statutes, it created a privilege where none had existed at common law. Subsequently, the Legislature enacted section 456.059, Florida Statutes, which creates the dangerous patient exception. Thus we are not constrained by the rule of strict statutory construction in interpreting the exception under section 456.059, as we would be in interpreting the privilege created by section 90.503....

...mental and emotional conditions." Attorney ad Litem, 780 So.2d at 306. It is obvious, however, that the Legislature did not envision the psychotherapist-patient privilege as absolute or immutable given the exceptions provided in sections 90.503 and 456.059. When the Legislature enacted section 456.059, it provided for an exception to the privilege when a patient makes a threat to physically harm an identified person and the treating psychiatrist makes a clinical judgment that the patient has the capability to commit that act and will likely do so in the near future. In that situation, the psychiatrist "may disclose patient communications to the extent necessary to warn any potential victim or to communicate the threat to a law enforcement agency." § 456.059(3), Fla....

...criminal proceedings against the patient, the focal point of our inquiry is determining the Legislature's intent in enacting this particular exception. See Deason v. Florida Dep't of Corrections, 705 So.2d 1374 (Fla.1998). The obvious intent behind section 456.059 is to provide protection to the victim of the threat....

...We find that the goal of victim protection extends to eliciting from the psychiatrist relevant evidence (the threat) that will facilitate the prosecution of a crime committed against the victim by *856 the dangerous patient. Thus when the Legislature enacted section 456.059, the Legislature intended to allow admission of the psychiatrist's testimony in a subsequent prosecution of the dangerous patient for offenses committed against the victim. By enacting section 456.059, the Legislature expressed its conclusion that the need for full disclosure by the patient to the psychiatrist is outweighed by the need to protect the victim from harm by a dangerous patient....

...n trial proceedings wherein the patient is prosecuted for the commission of a crime against the victim. Therefore, we conclude that application of the narrow interpretation advanced by Defendant would thwart the intent of the Legislature in enacting section 456.059....

...This we must not do. See Florida Dep't of Bus. & Prof'l Regulation, Div. of Pari Mutuel Wagering v. Investment Corp. of Palm Beach, 747 So.2d 374 (Fla.1999). The dangerous patient exception limits the disclosure that may be made in the trial proceedings. Section 456.059(3) specifically provides that patient communications may be disclosed "to the extent necessary" to warn the victim or to notify law enforcement....

...Accordingly, only statements made by the dangerous patient that are necessary to warn the victim and communicate the threat to law enforcement may be disclosed. Other communications that fall within the privilege created by section 90.503 remain protected and may not be disclosed under section 456.059....

...[3] In Katlein, the Fourth District, discussing its previous decision in Pinder, explained that section 90.5035 provides an absolute privilege "because the statute contains no exceptions." Katlein, 731 So.2d at 89. Section 90.503 contains three exceptions within its text and an additional one in section 456.059, Florida Statutes (2001)....

...tragedy had imposed such legal duties upon mental health providers, nor has any Florida statute ever imposed liability upon mental health providers who have failed to take such preemptive actions. For example, in the nearly twenty years before this tragedy occurred, section 456.059, Florida Statutes, provided: Communications between a patient and a psychiatrist, as defined in s....

...nt agency. No civil or criminal action shall be instituted, and there shall be no liability on account of disclosure of otherwise confidential communications by a psychiatrist in disclosing a threat pursuant to this section. § 456.059, Fla. Stat. (2000) (emphasis added). After this tragedy occurred, section 456.059 was amended to impose a legal duty upon psychiatrists to disclose patient communications to a law enforcement agency to the extent necessary to communicate “a specific threat to cause serious bodily injury or death to an identified...