BILL NUMBER: AB 733	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Nation

                        FEBRUARY 17, 2005

   An act to amend Section 43.92 of the Civil Code, relating to
personal rights.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 733, as introduced, Nation.   Psychotherapists: duty to warn.
   Existing law provides that no monetary liability and no cause of
action shall arise against a psychotherapist, as defined, for failing
to warn and protect from a patient's threatened violent behavior
except where the patient has communicated to the psychotherapist a
serious threat of physical violence against a reasonably identifiable
victim or victims.
   This bill would revise that provision to specify that it applies
where the patient himself or herself has communicated the threat to
the psychotherapist.
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no.
State-mandated local program: no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:


  SECTION 1.  Section 43.92 of the  Civil Code  is amended to read:
   43.92.  (a) There shall be no monetary liability on the part of,
and no cause of action shall arise against, any person who is a
psychotherapist as defined in Section 1010 of the Evidence Code in
failing to warn of and protect from a patient's threatened violent
behavior or failing to predict and warn of and protect from a patient'
s violent behavior except where the patient  himself or herself
 has communicated to the psychotherapist a serious threat of
physical violence against a reasonably identifiable victim or
victims.(b) If there is a duty to warn and protect under the limited
circumstances specified above, the duty shall be discharged by the
psychotherapist making reasonable efforts to communicate the threat
to the victim or victims and to a law enforcement agency.