Gov. Code, § 856 · Chapter 5. Medical, Hospital and Public Health Activities
Gov. Code, § 856
Text — As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
(a) Neither a public entity nor a public employee acting within the scope of his employment is liable for any injury resulting from determining in accordance with any applicable enactment:
(1) Whether to confine a person for mental illness or addiction.
(2) The terms and conditions of confinement for mental illness or addiction.
(3) Whether to parole, grant a leave of absence to, or release a person confined for mental illness or addiction.
(b) A public employee is not liable for carrying out with due care a determination described in subdivision (a).
(c) Nothing in this section exonerates a public employee from liability for injury proximately caused by his negligent or wrongful act or omission in carrying out or failing to carry out:
(1) A determination to confine or not to confine a person for mental illness or addiction.
(2) The terms or conditions of confinement of a person for mental illness or addiction.
(3) A determination to parole, grant a leave of absence to, or release a person confined for mental illness or addiction.
Notes and commentary — not statutory text
History
Amended by Stats. 1970, Ch. 1099.
Source of truth
- Edition
- As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
- Official file
- https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=GOV§ionNum=856.
- Text hash
- sha256 ea01e22617655e585dc199450e43a077f8a103fb9e8e80fc1f23e356ef56d358
- Composed by
- compose_ca.py 2026-10-22: the Legislative Counsel's CAML content files read by a tokenizer (caml_readers.reader_a); an independent xml.etree reading (caml_readers.reader_b) agrees on every section
Cited by 1 provision
Provisions in this library whose text cites Gov. Code, § 856. Each shows the citation as that text prints it.
Government Code
Procedural information only. Not legal advice and not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. Confirm the current text with the official publisher before relying on it.