The Vermont Statutes Online
The Statutes below include the actions of the 2024 session of the General Assembly.
NOTE: The Vermont Statutes Online is an unofficial copy of the Vermont Statutes Annotated that is provided as a convenience.
Title 18 : Health
Chapter 171 : General Provisions
(Cite as: 18 V.S.A. § 7104)-
§ 7104. Wrongful hospitalization or denial of rights; fraud; elopement
A person shall be fined not more than $500.00 or imprisoned not more than one year, or both, if he or she willfully causes, or conspires with or assists another to cause:
(1) the hospitalization of an individual knowing that the individual is not mentally ill or in need of hospitalization or treatment as an individual with a mental illness or intellectual disability; or
(2) the denial to any individual of any rights granted to him or her under this part of this title; or
(3) the voluntary admission to a hospital of an individual, knowing that he or she is not mentally ill or eligible for treatment, thereby attempting to defraud the State; or
(4) the elopement of any patient from a hospital or who knowingly harbors any patient who has eloped, or who aids in abducting a patient who has been conditionally discharged from the person or persons in whose care and service that patient has been legally placed. (Added 1967, No. 305 (Adj. Sess.), § 1, eff. Oct. 1, 1968; amended 1977, No. 257 (Adj. Sess.), § 4; 2013, No. 96 (Adj. Sess.), § 100; 2019, No. 131 (Adj. Sess.), § 123.)
