Lillian F. v. Superior Court

Petitioner, Lillian F., is a conservatee in Santa Clara County. The Public Guardian of that county is her conservator. By this petition for extraordinary relief, she seeks to overturn a March 16, 1984, order of the Santa Clara County Superior Court which determined that she did not have the capacity to give written, informed consent to convulsive treatment. (Welf. & Inst. Code, § 5326.7, subds. (f) and (g).)

The superior court’s order was made following an evidentiary hearing on a petition for necessary convulsive treatment filed by the conservator. The petition alleged that Lillian F. was in need of electroconvulsive therapy (hereafter ECT), that the procedures and consequences of the treatment had been discussed with her, and that, according to her physicians, as a result of a mental disorder she was incapable of fully understanding the treatment and of giving written, informed consent to it. Therefore, the conservator sought authorization from the court to give such consent. At the hearing, petitioner expressly requested that the superior court apply a “beyond a reasonable doubt” standard of proof to the question of whether she was capable of giving informed consent…