Legal Question in Medical Malpractice in New Jersey

Can licensed psycological therapists be held accountable for bad advice?

I have a 10 yr. old son w/ADHD. As part of his overall treatment plan, he was seeing a licensed clinical therapist for counseling. Therapist gave us ridiculous advice that would have been seriously harmful to my sons future had we taken her advice. I have spoken to a mental health advocate and a social worker from the div. of youth & family services about it, both of whom agree that the advice given would be harmful if followed. Also, after we fired her, she made an anonymous call to D.Y.F.S. making claims of child abuse because we fired her. We know for sure it was her because she supplied information that only she was privy to as it was given in condidence. There is the question of breeh of confidence here in addition to general malpractice. There was also another occasion when she broke my sons confidence over something ridiculous by informing my husband of what was said by my son. No consent was given for the release of information. Can she be held accountable for malpractice for the potentially harmful advice and for breach of confidence. Also possibly malicous slander that could have resulted in legal prosecution against my husband?


Asked on 3/29/05, 12:30 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Adam L. Rothenberg Levinson Axelrod, P.C.

Re: Can licensed psycological therapists be held accountable for bad advice?

My suggestion in a situation like this, file a complaint with the medical board and send a letter to desist. On the other hand, you are dealing with a person who seemingly lacks a moral or ethical center and their reaction to further challenge may be dangerous, so you may want to consider letting a sleeping dog lay. While there may be litigible issues, they do not appear to be likely to be sufficient in scope ot merit the expenditure of time and significant sums of money to pursue. Good luck with this.

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Answered on 3/29/05, 4:42 pm


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