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“Who Will Judge The Many When The Game Isthrough?”: Considering The Profound Differencesbetween Mental Health Courts And “Traditional”Involuntary Civil Commitment Courts, Michael L. Perlin
“Who Will Judge The Many When The Game Isthrough?”: Considering The Profound Differencesbetween Mental Health Courts And “Traditional”Involuntary Civil Commitment Courts, Michael L. Perlin
Seattle University Law Review
For forty years, we have known that involuntary civil commitment hearings are—in most jurisdictions—“charades.” When the Supreme Court noted, in Parham v. J.R., that the average length of a civil commitment hearing ranged from 3.8 to 9.2 minutes, the reaction of many who had done these cases was, “What? So long?!” The characterization of such hearings as being a “greased runway” to a state institution has never been disputed. Lawyers representing these individuals were bored or contemptuous; judges simply wanted to get cases moving; opposing counsel looked at their wrist watches to see when the cases would be done. This …
Ex Parte Civil Commitment, Family Care-Givers, And Schizophrenia: A Therapeutic Jurisprudence Analysis, Éva Szeli
Seattle University Law Review
First, this Article will discuss schizophrenia and its impact on these individuals and their families. Family variables in the course of the disorder will be highlighted. Then, this Article will review the legal power afforded such families by ex parte provisions in civil commitment statutes using the involuntary examination portion of the Florida mental health code as a model. Finally, this Article will assess this system of civil commitment available to care-giving families in therapeutic jurisprudential terms, with recommendations for maximizing the therapeutic consequences and minimizing the antitherapeutic consequences of ex parte procedures.