38-3132 Duty to warn; limitation; immunity.

NE Code § 38-3132 (2019) (N/A)

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38-3132. Duty to warn; limitation; immunity.

(1) No monetary liability and no cause of action shall arise against any psychologist for failing to warn of and protect from a client's or patient's threatened violent behavior or failing to predict and warn of and protect from a client's or patient's violent behavior except when the client or patient has communicated to the psychologist a serious threat of physical violence against 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 psychologist 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 against any person who is a psychologist for a confidence disclosed to third parties in an effort to discharge a duty arising under subsection (1) of this section in accordance with subsection (2) of this section.

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A psychologist 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).

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38-3133 Administrator of Psychology Interjurisdictional Compact; duties.