2023 New York Laws › MHY - Mental Hygiene › Title B - Mental Health Act › Article 9 - Hospitalization of Persons With a Mental Illness › 9.31 - Involuntary Admission on Medical Certification; Patient's Right to a Hearing.

§ 9.31 Involuntary  admission  on medical certification; patient's right
to a hearing.
(a) If, at any time prior to the expiration of  sixty  days  from  the
date  of  involuntary admission of a patient on an application supported
by medical certification, he or any relative or  friend  or  the  mental
hygiene legal service gives notice in writing to the director of request
for  hearing on the question of need for involuntary care and treatment,
a hearing shall be held  as  herein  provided.  The  patient  or  person
requesting  a  hearing on behalf of the patient may designate the county
where the hearing shall be held, which shall be  either  in  the  county
where the hospital is located, the county of the patient's residence, or
the county in which the hospital to which the patient was first admitted
is  located.  Such  hearing  shall  be held in the county so designated,
subject to application by any interested party, including the  director,
for  change  of  venue to any other county because of the convenience of
parties or witnesses or the condition of the patient upon notice to  the
persons  required  to  be  served  with  notice of the patient's initial
admission.
(b) It shall be the duty of the director upon receiving notice of such
request for hearing to forward forthwith a copy of such  notice  with  a
record  of  the  patient to the supreme court or the county court in the
county designated by the applicant, if  one  be  designated,  or  if  no
designation  be  made,  then to the supreme court or the county court in
the county where such hospital is located. A copy  of  such  notice  and
record shall also be given the mental hygiene legal service.
(c)  The  court  which receives such notice shall fix the date of such
hearing at a time not later than five days from the date such notice  is
received by the court and cause the patient, any other person requesting
the  hearing,  the  director, the mental hygiene legal service, and such
other persons as the court may determine to be  advised  of  such  date.
Upon  such  date, or upon such other date to which the proceeding may be
adjourned, the court shall hear testimony and examine the person alleged
to be mentally ill, if it be deemed advisable in or out of court. If  it
be  determined that the patient is in need of retention, the court shall
deny the application for the patient's release. If the patient is  in  a
psychiatric  hospital maintained by a political subdivision of the state
or in a general hospital the court, upon notice to the patient  and  the
mental  hygiene  legal service and an opportunity to be heard, may order
the patient transferred  to  the  jurisdiction  of  the  department  for
retention  in  a  hospital  operated  by  the  state  designated  by the
commissioner or to a private facility having  an  appropriate  operating
certificate  for  retention  therein  for  the balance of the period for
which the hospital is authorized to retain the patient. If  it  appears,
however,  that the relatives of the patient or a committee of his person
are willing and able properly to care for him at some place other than a
hospital, then, upon their written consent,  the  court  may  order  the
transfer  of  the  patient  to the care and custody of such relatives or
such committee. If it be determined that the patient is not mentally ill
or not in need of retention, the court shall order the  release  of  the
patient.
(d)  If the court shall order the release of the patient, such patient
shall forthwith be released.
(e) The department or the  director  of  the  hospital  authorized  to
retain  or receive and retain such patient, as the case may be, shall be
immediately furnished with a copy of the order of the court  and,  if  a
transfer  is ordered, shall immediately make provisions for the transfer
of such patient.
(f) The papers in any proceeding under this article  which  are  filed
with the county clerk shall be sealed and shall be exhibited only to the
parties  to the proceeding or someone properly interested, upon order of
the court.