Note, I Shot the Sheriff, But Only My Analyst Knows: Shrinking the Psychotherapist-Patient Privilege
Case Citation
Ulibarri v. Super. Ct., 909 P.2d 449 (Ariz. Ct. App. 1995)
Background
Holding that "[i]n a psychiatrist malpractice action, a limited waiver of the attorney-client privilege, to the extent it concerned the patient's memory of events at issue, was proper because the patient related the confidential information to the psychiatrist.”
Article Publication Date
1991
Volume
5
Issue
2
Citing Quote
The marital communications privilege is not "more important" than the attorney-client privilege; it is conceptually different. See 25 Charles A. Wright & Kenneth W. Graham, Jr., Federal Practice and Procedure § 5577, at 607 (1989). In expressing this difference, we find the following analysis helpful: Green and Nesson [E. Green & C. Nesson, Problems, Cases and Materials on Evidence (1983)] have classified privileges into two distinct types. The first is based on the professional counseling relationship between the holder of the privilege and the counselor for the purpose of fostering the effectiveness of the professional services; this category would include the lawyer-client, physician-patient, and priest-penitent privileges. The second category seeks to throw a veil of secrecy around certain areas of privacy in order to protect autonomy and dignity; the marital privilege and the privilege against self-incrimination fall into this latter group. Brian Domb, Note, I Shot the Sheriff, But Only My Analyst Knows: Shrinking the Psychotherapist-Patient Privilege , 5 J.L. & Health 209 (1991).