3071. Retaliation For Refusing Disclosure of Medical Information Essential Factual Elements

3071. Retaliation for Refusing to Authorize Disclosure of Medical InformationEssential Factual Elements (Civ. Code, § 56.20(b)) Instruction No 1 Request by Plaintiff Given as Proposed Refused Withdrawn Request by Defendant Given as Modified Requested by Given on Court's Motion Judge Instruction No 1 [Name of plaintiff] claims that [name of defendant] discriminated against [him/her] because [he/she] refused to authorize disclosure of [his/her] of medical information to [name of defendant]. To establish this claim, [name of plaintiff] must prove all of the following: 1. That [name of defendant] asked [name of plaintiff] to sign an authorization so that [name of defendant] could obtain medical information about [name of plaintiff] from [his/her] health care providers; That [name of plaintiff] refused to sign the authorization; That [name of defendant] [specify retaliatory acts, e.g., terminated plaintiff's employment]; That [name of plaintiff]'s refusal to sign the authorization was a substantial motivating reason for [name of defendant]'s decision to [e.g., terminate plaintiff's employment]; That [name of plaintiff] was harmed; and That [name of defendant]'s conduct was a substantial factor in causing [name of plaintiff]'s harm. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Even if [name of plaintiff] proves all of the above, [name of defendant]'s conduct was not unlawful if [name of defendant] proves that the lack of the medical information made it necessary to [e.g., terminate plaintiff's employment]. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________ New June 2015