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- Title
Protecting the Confidentiality of the Therapeutic Relationship: Jaffee v. Redmond.
- Authors
Lens, Vicki
- Abstract
The article offers a look at the acceptance of social work as a profession in the 1996 decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in the Jaffee versus Redmond case. At issue in the case was whether conversations between a social worker and her client are privileged communications and thus protected from forced disclosure in a civil action in federal court. The petitioner, Carrie Jaffee was the administrator of the estate of Rick Allen, who had been killed by the respondent Mary Redmond, a police officer. It was a case of first impression for the Supreme Court which had never before addressed the issue of whether a psychotherapist privilege existed for social workers or any of the other therapeutic disciplines including psychiatry and psychology. The most significant hurdle the Court faced in creating a new privilege was the 300-year-old axiom that the public...has a right to every man's evidence. To establish the usefulness of the psycho-therapist privilege, the Court first delved into the reasons behind the need for confidentiality in the psychotherapeutic relationship. The Court next turned to the question of whether the privilege should be extended to social workers. For social workers, the victory is significant because of the central role that social workers played in the case.
- Subjects
LEGAL judgments; CONFIDENTIAL communications in social case work; PROFESSIONAL relationships; REDMOND, Mary; JAFFEE, Carrie; JAFFEE v. Redmond (Supreme Court case); UNITED States. Supreme Court
- Publication
Social Work, 2000, Vol 45, Issue 3, p273
- ISSN
0037-8046
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1093/sw/45.3.273