Conservatorship of Bones

—This is an appeal from an order subjecting appellant William Bones to involuntary postcertification treatment as a dangerous person under the Lanterman-Petris-Short Act, Welfare and Institutions Code sections 5000-5550 (hereafter LPA). We hold that (1) the appeal should not be dismissed for mootness; (2) the trial court did not err in ordering appellant to testify; and (3) appellant waived any objection he may have had as a result of the assertedly self-incriminating tendency of his testimony.

I. Background

The LPA provides a multistaged procedure for the involuntary treatment of a person who, by reason of a mental disorder, is dangerous to others, dangerous to himself, or gravely disabled. (See Tieger & Kresser, Civil Commitment in California: A Defense Perspective on the Operation of the Lanterman-Petris-Short Act (1977) 28 Hastings LJ. 1407 (hereafter Civil Commitment).) The first stage is a “72-hour hold” for treatment and evaluation. (Id., at p. 1412; §§ 5150, 5200, 5206, 5213.) Thereafter the subject may be certified for an additional 14 days of intensive treatment. (Civil Commitment, supra, at p. 1408; §§ 5250, 5251.) At the end of this period the subject may be…