H Is For HIPAA

Health care information (including mental health information) can be very  important in a family law case in many ways and for many different issues.

In custody matters, the fitness of each parent is front and center of the case.  Often times, a parent's medical and mental health history will be relevant to the issues that the court is deciding.  For example, does a parent have a medical condition that may impair his o her ability to parent? In one case I had, a parent of a young child suffered from diabetes, and was insulin dependent.  The other parent wanted to take the position that the parent's risk going into diabetic shock was so significant, that overnight parenting time should not be permitted by the court.  Certainly, this was an important factor, and obtaining the records was critical.