Confidentiality and billing concerns

[backwardsbike]

Soc,

All parties and order are in PA.  I have posted previously about being court ordered to counseling and having the counselor go behind my back and email the kids then lie to me about it.  You suggested I request another counselor.  My attorney feels the judge will look at this as my just looking for a counselor who will agree with my point of view.

Currently, I have issues with the counselor regarding a summary she wrote in Auagust and billed me for.  When I realized I had been billed for a summary I had neither contacted for nor requested I placed a stop payment on the check and reissued a check for the amount of the counseling only.

I received a bill where the counseling center is insisting I pay for the summary and charging me a fee for a returned check from when I placed the stop payment on the original check.

When I called to complain the bookeeper informed me that since I was court ordered to the counseling the provider would periodically write reports that I was bound by the service agreement to pay for. When I aske dhow often these reports would be written I was told as often as the counselor felt the need to write one.

What I discovered when I dug out the service agreement is that under confidnetiality it says that if one is involved in litigation the counseling center was obligated to provide records which were court ordered.

The judge in my case ordered the counseling but never wrote in the order than any reports were to be issued.  I neither requested nor consented to the report.  When I began the session, the counselor told me"Everything in hereis confidential".  I knew better than that, but I beleived that confidentiality would be in force except in the case of homicidal statements, suicidal statements, child or elder abuse.

On the report the counselor indicated it was released to my X and to me. It covered the history of our custody issues detailing that two custody evals had been done, that CYS had become involved and that I had filed recently, a PFA against my DH. The counselor also suggests that the children's best interest need to be redefined and makes reference to my DH's alcohol issues.

 I find this very damaging. There is no way at all for me to know who has read this report. The counselor answered my question of who this was being released to with , " To both of you.  You can show it to your atorney and anyone else you want to."

  Also, CYS has completed thier investigation of my case and have determined that my family is in no need of services.

Questions:

What recourse do I have in not paying for this report?

What can I do in veiw of the fact that my confidentiality was violated?

To whom should I report this issue to, besides my lawyer?

[socrateaser]

>Questions:
>
>What recourse do I have in not paying for this report?

If it wasn't part of your agreement, then I see no reason why you should have to pay for it. However, your stopping payment on the check, injured the counseling center, therefore you are obligated to pay the reasonably foreseeable damages which occured as a consequence.

>
>What can I do in veiw of the fact that my confidentiality was
>violated?

Counseling which is for the purposes of litigation is NOT confidential. So, if the court ordered counseling in order to obtain information to make a decision in your case then the counseling is not confidential and your confidentiality has not been violated.

Also, if both of you were in counseling simultaneously, then your joint presence destroys the existence of confidentiality and once again, your rights to confidentiality would not be violated.

Conversely, if the counseling was ordered for the purposes of helping the parties cooperate in the child's best interests, but not to aid the court in making a decision, then your confidentiality has been violated and there may be a malpractice action available.

>To whom should I report this issue to, besides my lawyer?

Irrelevant.

PS. I think you may be shooting yourself in the foot. Don't put the counselor in the center of the storm, because he/she is in a position to make things even more stormy.

Either try to cooperate, or instruct your attorney to move the court to replace the counselor.

[backwardsbike]

Thanks Soc,

This is a dangerous place to be. The counseling was ordered specifically to avoid more ligtiagion.    I am not in a position to try to change custody.  My focus in asking for the counseling was to hopefully get to a point where my X and I could communicate better so joint decisons could be made for the children without our having to return to court over every minor schedule change.

The counseling was to be face to face.  However, my X refused to be in the same room with me in court when the counsleing was ordered.  This seemed to make the judge that much more determined to make my X comply.

We had one joint intake session in April.  Then the counselor refused to see us together and said we would proceed in a parallel fashion.  Meanwhile my X continued to violate the order.

I filed a contempt motion in response to the continued violations.  The counselor used our sessions to try to dissuade me from filing it and after it was filed to try to get me to drop it.  I felt like I was being coerced to drop it.  The counselor told me,"If you go to court the judge will think the counseling isn't working.".  Well, it wasn't, as evidenced by the continued vioaltions

When I went to the contempt hearing the judge asked me how the counseling was going.  I answered honestly telling him we had had only one joint session and saying that my subsequent sessions consisted of my giving  a history to the counselor and then her trying on four separate occassions to try to get me to drop the motion for contempt.

My lawyer ordered a copy of the transcript and had me give it to the counselor.  In it the judge said that my concerns were valid, found my X in contempt, issued a fine and further ordered that " Meaningful counseling aimed a preventing any future findings of contempt be started immediately." That was in mid July.

After I gave the counselor the transcript she became cold to me and tried to belittle me in the subsequent session when I had scheduled the session specifially to deal with the issue of her having lied to me about emailing my children.  Nothing about that session made me feel any more trusting of the counselor.

I see her summary as an attempt to cover her own backside as in it she tries to justify not seeing us in conjoint sessions and talking about all the issues I mentioned in my previous post.  Nowhere in the summary is there any mention of how the counseling is progressing.

Now on the table is an issue which should be a "no brainer".  My children visit every other Tuesday night.  I have a graduate level class which meets every Tuesday night at the same time as the visit.  I explained this in a email to my X and asked him to allow me to visit with the kids on an alternate night.  We have done this in the past.

X refused and insisted the visit happen on the court ordered night.  I explained that I was unable to be there and would have no option but to send my husband, whom my X decries as a danger to the children to carry out the visit.  My X agreed to that option. And the visit occurred with my husband the half siblings of the non custodial children and my elderly aunt.  My X refuses to even discuss any alternatives unless its with this counselor.

My fear is that the counselor may retalliate against me and write another report saying that I am not cooperating with the counseling unless I do what the counselor and my X want me to do.

Meanwhile my lawyer thinks the judge will be angry if I ask for a different counselor just as face to face sessions are starting.  I see this as a loose- loose situation for me.

My choices appear to be to pay for a report which was written without my consent and may represent an act malpractice or to ask the judge to appoint a new counselor, which will alienate him or to go and try to cooperate with an X who doesn't cooperate with anyone adn a counselor who has lied to my face and written a retaliatory report and may want to write another.

BTW, Children and Youth Services investigated me, my husband and our home and family and closed the case saying we were not in need of services.

Questions:

Is there any other option which I have not seen?

Is there anyway to preserve my rights to confidentiality without "putting the counselor in the middle of the storm?

If you were in my shoes, how would you proceed?

[socrateaser]

>Questions:
>
>Is there any other option which I have not seen?

I've mentioned before that I think the best alternative would be to simply request that the counselor withdraw from the case, because you believe him to be biased and that makes you feel uncomfortable with the therapy.

>
>Is there anyway to preserve my rights to confidentiality
>without "putting the counselor in the middle of the storm?

Not really.


>
>If you were in my shoes, how would you proceed?

See above. Followed by instructing my attorney to move for the appointment of a different counselor.

[backwardsbike]

Soc,

I have asked the counselor to withdraw.  She refuses to do so stating that if I have a problem then its on me to go to some other counselor.  That of course, will draw the ire of the judge, but I don't see any other alternative.

Thanks for your patience with me.