PHYSICIAN-PATIENT PRIVILEGE WAIVED
When H.S. sued for medical malpractice, and alleged “emotional and psychiatric injuries,” the defendants sought to procure her medical records, particularly those that related to her “psychiatric treatment.” Inexplicably, H.S. was unwilling or unable to provide that information, which ultimately resulted in an order from the Queens County Supreme Court striking those claims.
On appeal, the Appellate Division, Second Department, agreed that when people place their physical or mental condition at issue in a lawsuit, they’re waiving the physician-patient privilege and are required to cooperate with the discovery process and to provide access to the pertinent data.
As the AD2 noted:
“Here, the plaintiff's repeated failure to provide disclosure of her psychiatric medical records, in violation of multiple Supreme Court orders, coupled with her failure to demonstrate a reasonable excuse for that failure, supports an inference that her conduct was willful and contumacious …. Under those circumstances, it was a provident exercise of the Supreme Court's discretion to … strike the plaintiff's claims relating to emotional and psychiatric injuries.”
Now how striking was that?
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DECISION