Jaffee V. Redmond (1996)

Jaffee v.Redmond (1996)
The case of Jaffee v. Redmond was taken up by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1996. The issue was whether a psychotherapist-patient would be recognized under Rule 501 of the Federal Rules of Evidence. The Court granted a decision that recognized the existence of such a privilege holding that confidential communications of a licensed social worker and a police officer be protected from compelled disclosure As reported by Levy (1996), the Court decided that all communication between a patient and a psychotherapist falls under the umbrella of privilege and, the psychotherapist can’t under be forced by the courts to disclose such information.
Levy (1996) looks at the decision as representing a victory for advocates for patient privacy and confidentiality rights. the American Psychiatric Association joined in the suit and argued in an amicus brief that in addition to Rule 501 of the Federal Rules of Evidence, common law tradition support recognition of the patient-therapist privilege and it didn’t matter whether or not the therapist is a medical doctor. The issue was not the credentials of the therapist, but rather relationship nature between the caregiver and the patient.
Mary Lu Redmond , On June 27, 1991, a police officer was called to a fight at an
apartment. Ms Ms Redmond thought that Mr. Allen was about to stab the man he was chasing, so she shot and killed him. Carrie Jaffee who was the administrator of Mr. Allen’s estate, filed suit in Federal District Court alleging that Officer Redmond violated Mr. Allen’s constitutional rights by using excessive force.
It was discovered that by Ms. Jaffee learned that Officer Redmond had participated in 50 counseling sessions with a clinical social worker named Karen Beyer. Ms. Jaffee tried to obtain access to the notes taken by Ms. Beyer during those sessions. The request was resisted by Officer Redmond’s attorney. He argued that disclosing should be prevented because of a psychotherapist-client privilege. The court allowed the request. Neither Ms. Beyer nor Officer Redmond complied with it. The jury was advised of the refusal to turn over Ms. Beyer’s notes could lead to a presumption that the content of the notes could and would have been unfavorable to Officer Redmond.
Even though State courts do not have to comply with federal rulings due to jurisdictional differences and states’ rights, their decisions can be reversed on appeal to federal courts. Some states have accepted social workers as experts before the federal courts did.
Because of this, The social workers have increasingly testified in a large variety of cases over the past decades, including not only child welfare, the mitigation in capital sentencing , alcoholism ,victimization forensics, and trauma commitment hearings, education.
By a 7-2 majority the Court declared that federal courts were to recognize the privilege for statements made to psychotherapists in confidence during therapy.
Jaffee was the first U.S. Supreme Court case to analyze the meaning of Rule 501 as it was to apply to psychotherapists and patients. Justice Scalia argued and took the position that any such claim of privilege, should be subject to an analysis by the trial judge case-by-case. The Court further stated that it did apply to statements to licensed social workers. By implication, such recognition would also apply with respect to statements made to any licensed or certified mental health
provider. In the case of Jaffe,the Supreme Court placed huge emphasis on the fact that "all fifty states and the District of Columbia have enacted into law some form of psychotherapist privilege." Moreover, the Court noted that the original Advisory Committee, which it had appointed, had proposed a rule for this privilege in the initial draft of the Rules. Congress failed to adopt that provision as well as all of the other proposed rules relating to privileges. The Court reasoned that the privilege would be good public policy. It commented that psychotherapist privilege serves the public interest by facilitating the provision of appropriate treatment for individuals suffering the effects of a mental or emotional problem.


References
Levy, M. (1996). Supreme Court ruling: Jaffee v. Redmond, 1996.
Available at www.fpamed.com/forensic_psychiatry....
Retrieved September 29, 2014.
U.S. Supreme Court. (1996). Jaffee v. Redmond. Available at
http://supct.law.cornell,edu/supct/html/95-266.ZS.html.
Retrieved September 29, 2014.