38-2137. Mental health practitioner; duty to warn of patient's threatened violent behavior; limitation on liability.

(1) There shall be no monetary liability on the part of, and no cause of action shall arise against, any person who is licensed or certified pursuant to the Mental Health Practice Act for failing to warn of and protect from a patient's threatened violent behavior or failing to predict and warn of and protect from a patient's violent behavior except when the patient has communicated to the mental health practitioner a serious threat of physical violence against himself, herself, or a reasonably identifiable victim or victims.

(2) The duty to warn of or to take reasonable precautions to provide protection from violent behavior shall arise only under the limited circumstances specified in subsection (1) of this section. The duty shall be discharged by the mental health practitioner if reasonable efforts are made to communicate the threat to the victim or victims and to a law enforcement agency.

(3) No monetary liability and no cause of action shall arise under section 38-2136 against a licensee or certificate holder for information disclosed to third parties in an effort to discharge a duty arising under subsection (1) of this section according to the provisions of subsection (2) of this section.

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Annotations

A mental health practitioner is not liable for failing to warn of a patient's threatened violent behavior where the patient communicated a serious threat of physical violence to persons at random in a city with 300,000 or more inhabitants. Holloway v. State, 293 Neb. 12, 875 N.W.2d 435 (2016).