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Reversing a lower court's award of summary judgement, the Texas Supreme Court has ruled that when a therapist's patient tells the therapist he wants to kill someone, the therapist is not required to inform either the intended victim (who was later killed by the patient) or the police. Thapar v. Zezulka, No.97-1208 (Texas June 24). The court, disagreeing with a California Supreme Court decision Tarasoff v. Regents of the University of California, 551P22d 334 (1976), in which a therapist could be held liable for failing to warn the intend victim, declared that state law considers therapist - patient communication as confidential, and prohibits disclosure to third parties, disclosure to law enforcement officials is permitted, but not required. The court further noted that "mental health professionals make disclosures at their peril. Thus if a common law duty to warn is imposed, mental health professionals face a Catch-22. They either disclosure a confidential communication that later proves to be an idle threat and incur liability to the patient, or they fail to disclose a confidential communication that later proves to be a truthful threat and incur liability to the victim's family."
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