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Cal. Evid. Code § 1016

Psychotherapist-Patient Privilege

Applied in 32 court decisions — leading case 2 Cal. 3d 415 - In Re Lifschutz (1970)

Most recently applied in Mathews v. Becerra (December 2019)

Enacted by Stats. 1965, Ch. 299.

How often courts cite this section

19681980199020002010201920
citing decisions per year

Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.

There is no privilege under this article as to a communication relevant to an issue concerning the mental or emotional condition of the patient if such issue has been tendered by:

(a) The patient;

(b) Any party claiming through or under the patient;

(c) Any party claiming as a beneficiary of the patient through a contract to which the patient is or was a party; or

(d) The plaintiff in an action brought under Section 376 or 377 of the Code of Civil Procedure for damages for the injury or death of the patient.

Official source: California Legislative Information. Reproduced from public-domain California statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.