Starting a court case for involuntary hospitalization

(a) Any person may file a petition alleging that an individual meets the criteria for commitment to a psychiatric facility as provided in section 334-60.2. The petition shall be filed in the county where the individual resides and executed subject to penalties provided by law but need not be sworn to before a notary public. The department of the attorney general shall assist the petitioner in stating the substance of the petition in plain and simple language. The petition may be accompanied by a certificate of the qualified psychiatric examiner or psychologist who has examined the individual within two days before the petition is filed, unless the individual whose commitment is sought has refused to submit to medical or psychological examination, in which case the fact of refusal shall be alleged in the petition. The certificate shall set forth the signs and symptoms relied upon by the qualified psychiatric examiner or psychologist to determine the individual is in need of treatment and whether the individual is capable of realizing and making a rational decision with respect to the individual's need for treatment. If the petitioner believes that further examination is necessary before commitment, the petitioner may request further examination. (b) In the event the subject of the petition has been given an examination, evaluation, or treatment in a psychiatric facility within five days before submission of the petition, and hospitalization is recommended by the staff of the facility, the petition may be accompanied by the administrator's certificate in lieu of a qualified psychiatric examiner's or psychologist's certificate. (c) The petition shall include the name, address, and telephone number of at least one of the following persons in the following order of priority: the subject of the petition's spouse or reciprocal beneficiary, legal parents, adult children, surrogate, and legal guardian. If the subject of the petition has no living spouse or reciprocal beneficiary, legal parent, adult child, surrogate, or legal guardian, or if none can be found, notice shall be served on at least one of the subject's closest adult relatives, if any can be found.