Opinion ID: 831674
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: a mental health professional's statutory duty under mcl 330.1946

Text: Since Canon, our Legislature has codified a mental health professional's duty to warn or protect third persons from harm by his or her patients. In 1989, the Legislature enacted MCL 330.1946(1), which states in its current form: If a patient communicates to a mental health professional who is treating the patient a threat of physical violence against a reasonably identifiable third person and the recipient has the apparent intent and ability to carry out that threat in the foreseeable future, the mental health professional has a duty to take action as prescribed in [MCL 330.1946(2)]. Except as provided in this section, a mental health professional does not have a duty to warn a third person of a threat as described in this subsection or to protect the third person. The issue here, therefore, is to what extent MCL 330.1946 abrogated a mental health professional's common-law duty.