Court Opinion

ID: 9819591
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-01 06:28:21.693565+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:28:48.080357
License: Public Domain

PRESIDING JUSTICE COOK, dissenting: I would affirm the trial court’s decision. It appears that N.S. did file a written request for discharge. It would have been very easy to resolve this question if it had been raised in the trial court. In the alternative, I would grant the parties leave to supplement the record in this court to show whether a written demand for discharge was filed by N.S. I disagree with Weimer, which holds that strict adherence to section 3 — 403 requires “that evidence of respondent’s written request for discharge be part of the record at the time of the involuntary admission hearing and not added at some later point in time after the court’s commitment order has been entered.” Weimer, 219 Ill. App. 3d at 1009-10, 580 N.E.2d at 185. We should be concerned with whether there has in fact been compliance with section 3 — 403, not with insistence on technicalities that are contrary to fact. I assume that pursuant to the majority order, this case will return to the trial court and, if N.S. has not filed a written request for discharge, he will be returned to Provena. If N.S. has filed a written request for discharge, he will also be returned to Provena, and the State may refile its petition for involuntary admission. “Reversal of an involuntary admission order for failure to comply with that provision would simply restore the patient to his original status.” Splett, 143 Ill. 2d at 236, 572 N.E.2d at 888. N.S. suffers from serious problems, and it is not in his best interests or those of society that he be released without a hearing. There is no possibility that a different result will be reached. This all seems contrary to our concerns for judicial economy. We are achieving the goal of punishing the State for using a check-the-block form instead of attaching a copy of the written request for discharge, but better methods seem available to insure that the requirements of section 3 — 403 are met.