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Moran v. State6/3/1998
roductive citizen within our society. It appears to me that the jurisprudence and the legislation does create some discretion on the part of the Court relative to the utilization of these, in that it would appear as though when there is good cause shown, the Court can allow them to be utilized in subsequent investigations and proceedings. In this case, the Court is satisfied that good cause is shown in that this is about the only way that the plaintiff can have any hope at all of being able to try to establish its theory of the case, but that, in and of itself, is not the only reason why I am ruling in favor of the plaintiff in this regards. The other reason, which is integrally is the fact that I think that the reason for the confidentiality has disappeared from this case, in that we now have a juvenile who is deceased. Therefore, theoretically there's nothing to protect him from. Unfortunately this child met with some mysterious death in 1994 I think it was, and so accordingly the Court does not find that there would be any harm to the minor by the release or by allowing the plaintiff to utilize the information contained in these records. The Court also notes that in connection with these matters that there are other deaths that create problems for the plaintiff in terms of proving its case without these, and those problems being that almost everybody concerned with this case is either dead or nobody knows where they are. . . . So for these reasons the Court is going to allow the plaintiff to utilize the information contained in Plaintiff's Exhibit 1 and 2. . . .
La.R.S. 46:56 requires that, generally, client records of the Department of Health and Hospitals be kept in confidence. This rather extensive and specific statute provides, in part, as follows:
A. Applications for assistance and information contained in case records of clients of the Department of Health and Hospitals, the Department of Social Services, or the Office of Elderly Affairs, for the purpose of adult protective services, shall be confidential and, except as otherwise provided, it shall be unlawful for any person to solicit, disclose, receive, make use of, or to authorize, knowingly permit, participate in, or acquiesce in the use of applications or client case records or the information contained therein for any purpose not directly connected with the administration of the programs of the department.
(Emphasis added).
This seemingly comprehensive language, as well as that of the remaining subparagraphs of La.R.6. 46:56, appears to preclude disclosure of juvenile files in all but the most narrow of circumstances. However, a possible exception to the general rule of confidentiality is contained within La.R.S. 46:56(H) which provides:
(1) Information pertaining to foster care of children, reports and investigations on abuse or neglect of children, and records of other child welfare services administered by the department, including but not limited to handicapped children's services, nutrition, immunization, and other medical and public health services records pertaining to children and where such records are in the custody of parish health units or regional and central offices of the office of public health of the Department of Health and Hospitals, shall not be subject to discovery or subpoena in any civil suit in which the department is not a party.
(Emphasis added).
Although it does so inversely, this language seems to allow for a possibility that would contradict the comprehensive protective nature of the statute and indicate that, in civil suits in which the State is made a defendant, the otherwise confidential records may be discovered. Due to the langua
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