ETHICAL ISSUES AND PROFESSIONAL
RESPONSIBILITIES:
WHEN LAWYERS WORK WITH PSYCHIATRISTS
AND PSYCHOLOGISTS
Presented by:
Anne L. Clark, Zachary D. Fasman, Alfred G. Feliu, Stuart Kleinman, M.D.
Ethical Issues and Professional Responsibilities:
When Lawyers Work With Psychiatrists and Psychologists
Should a litigant's emotional vulnerability influence
a lawyer’s actions?
Put differently, are there ethical considerations
when dealing with a highly emotional, or emotionally vulnerable, litigant?
Assume the individual is not significantly
Ethical Issues and Professional Responsibilities:
When Lawyers Work With Psychiatrists and Psychologists
Should a litigant's emotional vulnerability influence
a mediator’s or arbitrator’s actions?
Is there any difference in the answer if the litigant
Ethical Issues and Professional Responsibilities:
When Lawyers Work With Psychiatrists and Psychologists
Are there actions a mediator could take to
capitalize on a party's emotional vulnerability to facilitate resolution and is there a point when such action crosses an ethical line?
Ethical Issues and Professional Responsibilities:
When Lawyers Work With Psychiatrists and Psychologists
Does the nature of the claim impact your answers?
Consider two individuals who are emotionally
vulnerable and highly emotional. One is bringing a sex harassment claim based in unwelcome
touchings and verbal abuse, the other is pursuing a claim for unpaid commissions.
Ethical Issues and Professional Responsibilities:
When Lawyers Work With Psychiatrists and Psychologists
Cognitive impairments arise from a variety of
causes.
If you become aware that a litigant suffers from a
cognitive impairment that compromises his or her ability to understand the issues or to exercise
Ethical Issues and Professional Responsibilities:
When Lawyers Work With Psychiatrists and Psychologists
A physician, who will shortly be deposed, concludes that her patient’s mental condition is being harmed by her pursuit of a legal claim.
What should the physician communicate to the patient
about her pursuit of the claim?
Does the physician have an ethical duty to convey her
conclusion to her patient’s attorney?
Does the physician have an ethical duty to avoid
Ethical Issues and Professional Responsibilities:
When Lawyers Work With Psychiatrists and Psychologists
You become aware that your client has a mental impairment that makes it impossible for the two of you to continue to work together.
Ethical Issues and Professional Responsibilities:
When Lawyers Work With Psychiatrists and Psychologists
A prospective client has a mental disability and in fact divulges it during the course of discussion about the claims he believes he has against his employer.
Do you have any particular responsibilities now
Ethical Issues and Professional Responsibilities:
When Lawyers Work With Psychiatrists and Psychologists
Plaintiff brings an employment-related claim against her employer seeking damages, in part, for
emotional distress.
To what extent has she waived her right to privacy
and the patient-psychotherapist privilege as to the content of her psychotherapy sessions with her treating therapist?
Assume her treatment commenced before she
Ethical Issues and Professional Responsibilities:
When Lawyers Work With Psychiatrists and Psychologists
What are the psychotherapist’s ethical obligations
with respect to protecting the plaintiff/patient’s confidences?
Ethical Issues and Professional Responsibilities:
When Lawyers Work With Psychiatrists and Psychologists
A litigant claims that her supervisor sexually harassed her and subjected her to a hostile work environment.
Defense counsel learns from co-workers that she has been having an affair with another supervisor. When defense counsel deposes her treating therapist, she asks whether the plaintiff has divulged her affair with the supervisor in therapy. The therapist refuses to answer.
Is this purely a matter of privacy law or are there
Ethical Issues and Professional Responsibilities:
When Lawyers Work With Psychiatrists and Psychologists
A psychotherapist learns from her client that she intends to harm a co-worker.
What are the psychotherapist’s ethical obligations
and constraints with respect to informing the employer and the co-worker of the threat?
Does it make a difference whether the
Ethical Issues and Professional Responsibilities:
When Lawyers Work With Psychiatrists and Psychologists
In-house counsel becomes aware that an employee is voicing threats to kill himself. Co-workers report to Human Resources that the employee has long
boasted about his gun collection. The employee
assures HR when interviewed that he has no plan to harm himself.
Ethical Issues and Professional Responsibilities:
When Lawyers Work With Psychiatrists and Psychologists
An employee’s spouse reports to Human Resources
that the employee has beaten her and voiced threats to kill his supervisor. The employee has no
performance problems and complies with company rules.
Does the company have an obligation to take any
Contact Us
Anne L. Clark
Vladeck, Waldman, Elias & Engelhard, P.C.
Phone: (212) 403-7332; Email: [email protected]
Zachary D. Fasman
Proskauer Rose LLP
Phone: (212) 969-3440; Email: [email protected]
Alfred G. Feliu
Vandenberg & Feliu, LLP
Phone: (212) 763-6802; Email: [email protected] Stuart B. Kleinman, M.D.
Associate Clinical Professor Of Psychiatry
Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons
