Court's ruling effectively brings an end to electroshock "treatment" in California county

In March, the Santa Barbara California Superior Court awarded Los Angeles attorney Kendrick Moxon, $265,000 in attorney's fees and costs in the case Akkerman v. Johnson (case no. 1069713), a consumer fraud case against Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital for violating patients' rights to informed consent for shock treatment.

The fees award arose out of the order last year when the Court found that the head psychiatrist of the hospital regularly misrepresented his credentials to patients, and gave inadequate and unlawful reviews of informed consent decisions by patients.

The Court had also found that the hospital violated California state law respecting giving full informed consent information to patients proposed for shock treatments.

The Court had also forbidden the hospital from performing shock treatments unless it could prove it could do so without violating patient's rights. As a result, no shock treatments have been performed at this location for over a year.

The Court recently found that the psychiatric hospital was required to pay my "reasonable" attorneys fees expended to acquiring the ruling against the use of the unlawful shock treatment. The order was based on the California "Private Attorney General" statute, under which the court has discretion to award fees to a successful party where the action results in enforcement of an important right affecting the public interest, where a significant benefit has been conferred on the general public or a large class of persons, the necessity and financial burden of private enforcement makes the award appropriate, and justice requires payment by the opposing party.

The Court found, in part:

"Here, it is clear that Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital modified its behavior by modifying the insufficient consent form in November 2003 and revising its policies and procedures to comply with State law following the injunction, as a direct result of plaintiff's action....

"Welfare and Institutions Code sections 5325.1 et seq. requires specific procedures to ensure that shock treatments are not performed on unwilling patients and that informed written consent is obtained before such treatments. Section 5325.1 states the intent of the legislature that persons with mental illness shall have rights, not limited to those enumerated.

"Clearly, the action resulted in enforcement of the fundamental rights of persons with mental illness to informed consent as set out in statutory protections and procedures outlined in W&I sections 5325.1 et seq.

"The benefit of [the hospital's] compliance with statutory requirements is significant...."

"It appears in the interests of justice that [the psych hospital] pay the fees incurred to vindicate these important rights."

These rulings have shut down the last facility in the entirety of Santa Barbara County that continued to provide this archaic and dangerous "treatment."