CA State Appeals Court Finds Marin County Needs to Protect Rights of Mental Patients

A state appeals court has ruled that the county of Marin improperly approved drugs to treat mental patients without first determining whether they were capable of making an informed choice not to take the medications.

The case involves two Marin County women with chronic mental disorders, identified in court filings only as Krishna G. and Donna H. The county of Marin was appointed conservator for both women in 2010 and approved treating them with psychotropic drugs. Under state law, a person who is "gravely disabled" due to a mental disorder may be committed for involuntary evaluation and treatment. The initial commitment is for 72 hours, and conservatorship for renewable periods of one year may follow after a hearing.

In 2011, Golden Gate University School of Law Professor Mort Cohen, a longtime advocate for the rights of the mentally ill, petitioned the Marin Superior Court on behalf of Krishna G. and Donna H. Cohen asserted that as conservator, the county was routinely approving the use of psychotropic drugs without conducting an evidentiary hearing on the patients' capacity to make their own decisions and without meaningful notice and an opportunity to be heard.

In the meantime, the county of Marin revised the written notification given to patients prior to conservatorship proceedings, and the conservatorships of both Krishna G. and Donna H. expired. Judge Lynn Duryee found Cohen's petition to be moot and dismissed it.

Cohen appealed, and on Friday the 1st District Court of Appeal in San Francisco reversed that decision and sent the case back to Judge Duryee to conduct further proceedings and enforce action "consistent with the views" in its opinion.

In its decision, the three-judge panel wrote that before conservatees are forced to take medications, a court must find that they lack "the mental capacity to rationally understand the nature of the medical problem, the proposed treatment, and the attendant risks."

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State Appeals Court Finds Marin Needs to Protect Rights of Mental Patients