Jane Student 1 v. Williams

206 F.R.D. 306, 58 Fed. R. Serv. 1103, 2002 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 464, 2002 WL 392958
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. Alabama
DecidedJanuary 7, 2002
DocketNo. CIV.A.01-0036-RV-S
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 206 F.R.D. 306 (Jane Student 1 v. Williams) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Jane Student 1 v. Williams, 206 F.R.D. 306, 58 Fed. R. Serv. 1103, 2002 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 464, 2002 WL 392958 (S.D. Ala. 2002).

Opinion

ORDER

STEELE, United States Magistrate Judge.

This matter is again before the Court on a motion to quash subpoena filed by non-party Cahaba Center for Mental Health and Mental Retardation (“Cahaba”) and on a motion to compel filed by defendants Charles and Penny Williams (“the Williams defendants”). (Docs.37, 39). The subpoenas seek all records maintained by Cahaba concerning any of the four plaintiffs. (Doc. 52 at 2). The parties appear to agree that the records of six specific individuals presently or formerly employed by Cahaba are encompassed in the records sought by subpoena. (Doc. 39 at 2-3; Doc. 48 at 4).

By order entered December 6, 2001, the Court held that the federal law of privilege applies and directed the parties to submit additional briefing concerning the scope of the privilege as applicable to this case. (Doc. 49). The parties have done so, (Does.52, 53), and the pending motions are now ripe for resolution.

The Supreme Court established a federal psychotherapist privilege applicable to licensed psychiatrists, licensed psychologists and licensed social workers in Jaffee v. Redmond, 518 U.S. 1, 15, 116 S.Ct. 1923, 135 L.Ed.2d 337 (1996). It is uncontroverted that four of the six employees at issue carry some form of professional license.1 It is also uncontroverted that the other two employees are not licensed in any relevant field.2 The Williams defendants acknowledge that licensed social workers fall within the federal privilege but argue that licensed professional counselors do not. (Doc. 52 at 1). The plaintiffs, in turn, argue that unlicensed professionals are covered by the privilege. (Doc. 53 at 2-4). The Court rejects both positions.

The Williams defendants offer no rationale for their position, and the Court discerns none. The Jaffee Court identified three reasons for extending the psychotherapist privilege to licensed social workers: (1) they “provide a significant amount of mental health treatment”; (2) “[tjheir clients include the poor and those of modest means who could not afford the assistance of a psychia[308]*308trist or psychologist ... but [their] counseling sessions serve the same public goals”; and (3) “the vast majority of States explicitly extend a testimonial privilege to licensed social workers.” 518 U.S. at 15-17, 116 S.Ct. 1923. Each of these rationales applies as well to licensed professional counselors.

First, licensed professional counselors provide a' significant amount of mental health treatment. The very title reflects that such persons engage in the profession of “counseling,” and the purpose of the psychotherapist privilege is to “allo[w] individuals to receive confidential counseling.” Jaffee v. Redmond, 518 U.S. at 11 n. 10, 116 S.Ct. 1923. Indeed, this consideration applies with more force to licensed professional counselors than it does to licensed social workers; while a social worker has a wide range of duties, many of which have nothing to do with counseling, the licensed professional counselor’s primary if not exclusive mission is to provide such counseling.

Second, the counseling provided by licensed professional counselors “serve[s] the same public goals” as that provided by licensed psychiatrists and psychologists. The Supreme Court identified the public good underlying the psychotherapist privilege as that of promoting “the mental health of our citizenry,” and the private good as that of encouraging the development of the confidential relationship between professional and patient that makes possible the advancement of the public good. 518 U.S. at 10-11, 116 S.Ct. 1923. By fostering the private goal of confidentiality, applying the privilege to licensed professional counselors promotes the public good as it does with respect to licensed social workers.

Third, the Court’s non-exhaustive research reveals that over 30 states have recognized a privilege explicitly covering licensed (or certified or registered) professional counselors.3 Some of the jurisdictions that do not expressly recognize such a privilege appear not to license professional counselors to begin with. Moreover, every state that does not expressly protect communications with licensed professional counselors does protect communications with mental health professionals and counselors,4 marriage, family and/or child counselors,5 and/or rape, sexual assault and/or domestic violence counselors.6 The definitions of these terms in many cases is broad enough to encompass licensed professional counselors; even where they are not, the extension of a privilege to similar sorts of counselors indicates the states’ recognition that confidential communications with counselors merit protection.

The recognition of federal privileges is to be governed by the principles of the common law as interpreted by federal courts “in the light of reason and experience.” Fed.R.Evid. 501; accord Jaffee v. Redmond, 518 U.S. at 8, 13, 116 S.Ct. 1923. The “reason” supplied by the Supreme Court in Jaffee, and the “reason and experience” of the states outlined above, support the protection of confidential communications with licensed pro[309]*309fessional counselors. Accordingly, the Court concludes that the federal psychotherapist privilege extends to licensed professional counselors.

In Oleszko v. State Compensation Insurance Fund, 243 F.3d 1154 (9th Cir.), cert. denied, _ U.S. _, 122 S.Ct. 208, 151 L.Ed.2d 148 (2001), the Ninth Circuit “h[e]ld that the psychotherapist-patient privilege recognized in Jaffee v. Redmond extends to communications with EAP personnel.” Id. at 1159. The plaintiffs rely primarily on Oleszko for the proposition that the federal privilege extends to unlicensed persons such as Wiltbanks and Lyons. (Doc. 53 at 2-4).7

The personnel at issue in Oleszko were shown to have “backgrounds in psychology or social work, including relevant clinical and/or field experience” and to “regularly participate in ongoing training and education on EAP-related issues,” and they were-“trained as counselors, [we]re held out as counselors in the workplace and, like psychotherapists, them job [wa]s to extract personal and often painful information from employees in order to determine how best to assist them.” 243 F.3d at 1156-57. The plaintiffs, despite months to research the issue and a court order encouraging them to do so, have made no similar showing concerning Wilt-banks and Lyons.

Nor is the Court persuaded that Oleszko was correctly decided even on its very different facts. As a telling threshold matter, the Ninth Circuit did not acknowledge the bedrock principle that American jurisprudence is firmly biased in favor of testimony and against privilege such that, “fwjhatever their origins, these exceptions to the demand for every man’s evidence are not lightly created nor expansively construed, for they are in derogation of the search for truth.” United States v. Nixon, 418 U.S. 683, 709, 94 S.Ct. 3090, 41 L.Ed.2d 1039 (1974).

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Bluebook (online)
206 F.R.D. 306, 58 Fed. R. Serv. 1103, 2002 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 464, 2002 WL 392958, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/jane-student-1-v-williams-alsd-2002.