Mental Illness Law Overview

Our firm's founder, John C. Whitbeck, Jr. Esquire, has developed a successful and important part of our firm’s practice in the area of mental illness law. Mr. Whitbeck is not only an adjunct professor of mental illness law at George Mason University Law School, but he is also the director of the George Mason University Law and Mental Illness Clinic and has been featured and quoted in the media on mental illness-related issues. Mr. Whitbeck is also a former special justice (judge) for proceedings to commit mentally ill individuals to psychiatric treatment.

The area of mental illness law is composed of cases involving the emergency commitment of mentally ill individuals to psychiatric treatment, the appointment of fiduciaries as guardians and conservators for mentally ill individuals and the emergency authorization of medical treatment for mentally ill individuals. In addition, mental illness issues permeate into almost every other area of law in which our firm practices, but most definitely in the areas of family law and criminal law. Our firm is not only prepared to represent individuals in mental illness law cases but also in family law cases, criminal cases and other cases where the mental illness of one of the parties is a particularly important issue. As such, our firm’s mental illness law practice is divided into many different segments which are described on the pages linked below.