Medical records given by a family member to court

[meldresler]

Hi,

I'm wondering if someone can give me the actual law involved here. I just went through a custodial evaluation. Once it was over, it turns out that the evaluators didn't send in an official request for my child's mental health records (they sent official requests to everyone else, to all kinds of other mental health professionals). My ex had requested her mental health records and, since many of them involved discussions of him, the therapist had released an edited version with a cover letter to the attorneys that it was a partial set of records for the protection of her client. (She works for a big university, and that is their policy, so she isn't worried about herself legally).

So anyhow, my ex's attorney gave this copy to the custody evaluators which they used as their official records, and you can imagine, it looked like my child never talked about him at all, which was reflected in their recommendations.

A psychologist recently told me that it's "illegal" to review mental health records that do not come from formal releases. Is this true and if so, what is the specific law involved?

 

[myneighbor]

Oh boy, I sure hope the psychologist is right.

I sounds to me like the one party released the medical records as part of his "discovery" compliance. I would investigate this fully.

Don't you have a lawyer to protect your interestS? If I missed that fact in your paragraph, forgive me.

 

[meldresler]

My attorney said that you really can't fight the evaluation and that I just need to focus ahead. These evaluators are the only agency in town and it's kind of a fiefdom. My attorney has never lost a custody case, but this advice is difficult to swallow.

My child's therapist IMMEDIATELY sent a letter to the evaluators indicating that those were not her (full/accurate) records, and that the attorneys had received a letter to that effect when she released the partial records. And she submitted the full set of records based on a release I gave her. There has been no response from the evaluators and it's been a month.

The university records department has prepared a letter indicating that there was never an official request from the evaluators for any of my child's medical or mental health records. (Since they haven't responded to the therapist's letter, I was wondering if this should be cc-ed to the court or to HHS or something like that).

Even going into the evaluation, the child's therapist was the key figure. She's been seeing my daughter on a weekly basis for almost a year and a half. She was supposed to be the first person they talked to and after 4.5 months, they didn't talk to her or send in the request for her records. (I did sign one).

(They did have me come in 3 times to sign releases for a marriage counselor I saw 1 time 11 years ago, amazing.)

 

[Just Blue]

Hi,

I'm wondering if someone can give me the actual law involved here. I just went through a custodial evaluation. Once it was over, it turns out that the evaluators didn't send in an official request for my child's mental health records (they sent official requests to everyone else, to all kinds of other mental health professionals). My ex had requested her mental health records and, since many of them involved discussions of him, the therapist had released an edited version with a cover letter to the attorneys that it was a partial set of records for the protection of her client. (She works for a big university, and that is their policy, so she isn't worried about herself legally).

So anyhow, my ex's attorney gave this copy to the custody evaluators which they used as their official records, and you can imagine, it looked like my child never talked about him at all, which was reflected in their recommendations.

A psychologist recently told me that it's "illegal" to review mental health records that do not come from formal releases. Is this true and if so, what is the specific law involved?

U.S. Law Only.

 

[meldresler]

U.S. Law Only.

I don't understand. Is it federal law and if so, where do I find it?

 

[LdiJ]

I don't understand. Is it federal law and if so, where do I find it?

She means that you did not identify your state, therefore we cannot be certain that you are in the US, and this forum is for US law only.

 

[meldresler]

I'm in KY; the ex is in VA.