{"id":1539,"date":"2007-03-17T16:05:25","date_gmt":"2007-03-17T16:05:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost:8888\/wordpress\/psychiatricpsychological_privi\/"},"modified":"2024-12-17T16:15:07","modified_gmt":"2024-12-17T21:15:07","slug":"psychiatricpsychological-privi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.finchmccranie.com\/blog\/psychiatricpsychological-privi\/","title":{"rendered":"Psychiatric\/Psychological Privilege in Injury Cases in Georgia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Many times we represent clients\u2019 who have been seriously injured in automobile, trucking or on-the-job accidents who have sought and received psychological or psychiatric counseling and treatment. During the course of litigation, insurance company lawyers often try to subpoena mental health records from mental health professionals. It is wise to be vigilant in monitoring these requests from insurance defense lawyers and to object to these requests.<br \/>\nUnder Georgia law, \u201cParties may obtain discovery regarding any matter, <em>not privileged<\/em>, which is relevant to the subject matter involved in the pending action . . .\u201d (Emphasis supplied) O.C.G.A. \u00a7 9-11-26(b)(1).  Psychiatric records are <em>not<\/em> absolutely privileged.  See Donalson v. State, 192 Ga. App. 37, 38 (2), 383 S.E. 2d 588 (1989).  However, <em>communications<\/em> between a psychiatrist and patient are absolutely privileged and that privilege must be waived as a pre-condition of discovery. O.C.G.A. \u00a7 24-9-21(5); Freeman v. State, 196 Ga. App. 343, 396 S.E. 2d 69 (1990).  The purpose of the psychiatrist-patient privilege is to encourage the patient to talk freely without fear of disclosure and embarrassment, thus enabling the psychiatrist to render effective treatment of the patient\u2019s emotional or mental disorders. O.C.G.A. \u00a7 24-9-21 (5).<br \/>\nPursuant to O.C.G.A. \u00a7 24-9-40, the psychiatrist-patient privilege may not be deemed waived simply because the patient\u2019s \u201ccare and treatment or nature and extent of his injuries [have been put] at issue in any civil or criminal proceeding.\u201d  See Wilson v. Bonner, 166 Ga. App. 9, 16 (5), 303 S.E. 2d 134 (1983). In other words, the psychiatrist\/patient privilege is <em>not<\/em> waived when an injured person, who claims it, is seeking to recover damages for injuries of a mental or emotional basis. Accordingly, if you are physically injured in an accident and you seek damages for your mental pain and suffering, you do <em>not<\/em> waive the psychiatrist-patient privilege and the insurance company is not entitled to anything that is privileged.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Many times we represent clients\u2019 who have been seriously injured in automobile, trucking or on-the-job accidents who have sought and received psychological or psychiatric counseling and treatment. During the course of litigation, insurance company lawyers often try to subpoena mental health records from mental health professionals. It is wise to be vigilant in monitoring these [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[44],"class_list":["post-1539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-personal-injury-wrongful-death","tag-personal-injury"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Psychiatric\/Psychological Privilege in Injury Cases in Georgia &#8212; Trial Attorney Blog &#8212; March 17, 2007<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Many times we represent clients\u2019 who have been seriously injured in automobile, trucking or on-the-job accidents who have sought and received &#8212; March 17, 2007\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.finchmccranie.com\/blog\/psychiatricpsychological-privi\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Psychiatric\/Psychological Privilege in Injury Cases in Georgia &#8212; 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