In Illinois, the Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities Confidentiality Act is a bulwark against improper disclosures of mental health information. At the time of its enactment, the Act was a “comprehensive revision” of prior safeguards for mental health records. And, to this day, the law “constitutes a strong statement by the General Assembly about the importance of keeping mental-health records confidential.”  In their November 2024 Illinois Bar Journal article, “Mind Over Matter,”  Joseph T. Monahan and Matthew R. Davison explain this is why Illinois courts have underscored the importance of maintaining confidentiality for recipients and have routinely favored strict adherence to the Act’s protections. They go on to show how Litigation attorneys who are unfamiliar with the Act risk undermining their own cases when mental health records are at issue. What’s more, the authors write, attorneys may implicate their own liability if they pursue a recipient’s mental health records without adhering to these safeguards afforded by the law.

Read the November Illinois Bar Journal’s article, “Mind Over Matter.”