On September 4, 2009, the Kansas Supreme Court unanimously ruled that a psychiatrist owes no duty to third parties to control the actions of an involuntarily confined psychiatric patient placed on outpatient status by a district court. In this case of first impression, the Court agreed with Defendants that the scope of a physician’s duty under Kansas law would not extend so far as to require a psychiatrist to control the actions of a non-custodial patient. Therefore, no liability was found on the part of the treating psychiatrist. Trevin Wray represented the defendants at oral argument.
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