Rule 3.614.Health Threats to Others

MCR 3.614 adapts civil procedure to a proceeding that asks a court to order treatment, and sometimes commitment, for a person said to carry a contagious disease that threatens others. Subrule (A) frames the whole rule: proceedings under part 52 of the public health code follow the rules generally applicable to civil proceedings except as this rule modifies them. The modifications are few and specific.

Service and parties

Subrule (B) places the burden of service on the moving party wherever service is required. Subrule (C) keeps the list of interested parties short. In a petition for treatment of infectious disease, they are the petitioner and the respondent. Nobody else is drawn in by the rule itself.

The Commitment Review Panel

The rule's distinctive feature is a medical panel that advises the court. Under subrule (D)(1), when a petition asks that the individual be committed to an appropriate facility, the court appoints a Commitment Review Panel from a list of physicians prepared by the Department of Public Health, and does so forthwith. The panel is not a substitute for the court's decision. Subrule (D)(3) requires written recommendations before the date of the hearing on the petition, substantially in a form approved by the State Court Administrator.

Subrule (D)(2) gives the respondent a voice in who sits on the panel. On the respondent's motion asking that a specific physician be appointed, the court appoints that physician unless the physician refuses. If the individual cannot pay the physician, the court pays a reasonable fee comparable with fees paid to other court appointed experts. To make room, the court discharges one of the physicians it initially appointed. The panel therefore keeps its size while gaining a member the respondent chose.

Commitment and its limits

Subrule (E) treats commitment as time limited and reviewable. No order of commitment may exceed 6 months. A commitment that is to continue requires a fresh motion, and subrule (E)(1) sets out how that works:

• the motion is filed at least 14 days before the existing order expires;
• it is made by the director of the commitment facility or the director's designee;
• the hearing is held before the existing order expires;
• notice is given as on the initial petition and to the local department of public health;
• the court reconvenes the respondent's Commitment Review Panel; and
• the petitioner must show good cause for continued commitment in the facility.

Review at the respondent's request

Subrule (E)(2) runs the other direction. A person committed to a facility for treatment of an infectious disease may petition for a new Commitment Review Panel recommendation on whether the commitment should be terminated. That petition is available once within any six-month period, and more often by leave of the court. Within 14 days after receiving the report of the reconvened panel, the court reviews it and enters an order. The rule allows the court to modify, continue, or terminate the commitment order without a hearing, which makes the panel's written report the center of the review.