Request By:
Honorable H. Myer Garner
Chief District Judge
29th Judicial Circuit
Box 126
Liberty, Kentucky 42539
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; Stephen L. Frank, Assistant Attorney General
In your letter dated January 15, 1981 to this office you stated that the physicians in your district were unwilling to be sworn to their diagnosis in evaluating mental patients. Specifically you stated that said physicians maintained that they are "not required to submit to a notary involving such diagnosis. " We disagree.
Chapter 202A of the Kentucky Revised Statutes provides the procedures for the voluntary and involuntary hospitalization of the mentally ill. Several provisions of that Chapter provide for the involuntary hospitalization of persons believed to be mentally ill based upon the certification of two qualified physicians. KRS 202A.030(3), KRS 202A.040, and KRS 202A.070. The form of this certificate is clearly set forth in this Chapter.
KRS 202A.090(1) specifically provides as follows:
"The certificate referred to in this chapter shall be in the form prescribed by the department. The certificate shall state that the respondent has been examined by each of the examining physicians making the certificate within three (3) days prior to the date of the certificate. It shall state the facts and circumstances upon which the judgment of the examining physician is based and should be sworn to before a notary, the clerk or judge of the court." [Emphasis Added].
This provision leaves no doubt that the physician's certificate must be sworn to by the examining physician.