Legal Question in Civil Litigation in Wisconsin
Stopping a family member who is mentally ill from travel.
My sister has a mental illness called bi-polar disorder. When she does not take her medication she
loses the ability to make rational decisions she becomes very agressive and violent and does not sleep.
All of sudden the other day she packed up her bags and went to the airport and purchased a ticket out of the country after she had told us she was going to see her doctor for a scheduled blood test to check her medication level in the blood. Only after being notified by the neighbors that she had planned to leave the country we went to the airport and pleaded with the airline not to allow her to get on the plane despite calls from her physican as well as faxes describing her condition from the hospital and doctor the airline still allowed her to travel. Even though we warned them about our experience with her on plane 6 months ago. She faught with passengers and crew the entire flight. She is now halfway accross the world and we are unable to get treatment for her. What type of action can be taken against the airline for ignoring her doctors orders not to let her travel before seeking necesary treatment.
against the airline
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Stopping a family member who is mentally ill from travel.
I will start by saying that you question raises
a number of issues that are so unusual that you
may want to get more than one opinion.
I presume your sister is an adult and that she
does not have a legal guardian. If she has a
guardian, then the guardian should have taken
control of the travel situation. The guardian
would be the one to have any claims for any
wrongdoing by the airline.
As an adult, without anyone acting as her guardian,
your sister has rights to her own destiny. She
can even choose not to take her medication. She
can travel anywhere she chooses. If any actions she
takes make her dangerous to herself or others, however,
she may be the subject of a guardianship
proceeding. If two medical opinions indicate that
to be so, a guardianship could be established.
The difficulty now is that she is not in Wisconsin
or even in the states. The jurisdiction she is
in would generally govern the status of those
becoming incompetent while there.
I hope this is of some help. As I said, you may want
multiple opinions on this.
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