Law Lessons from JASON S. FAZIO VS. DANIELLE M. APISA, App. Div., A-2686-11T1, December 21, 2012:

In order to be successful in a request for a party’s medical records, the requesting party needed to satisfy the three-prong test set forth in Kinsella v. Kinsella, 150 N.J. 276 (1997) (where the court extended the three-prong test for piercing the attorney-client privilege outlined in In re Kozlov, 79 N.J. 232 (1979) to apply to psychologist-patient relationship). ^[1] The Kinsella Court was faced with a custody dispute by divorcing spouses where the wife sought the husband-patient’s psychologist records, claiming they were necessary for the court to determine custody. Id. at 292. The Court ultimately held that if a less intrusive means for obtaining the same information were available, that method would be preferable to disclosure of a patient’s records. Id. at 306-07.

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1. The physician-patient privilege is analogous to the psychologist-patient privilege. See N.J.S.A. 2A:84A-22.2; N.J.R.E. 506. [↩]