Legal Issues and Religious Counseling

Rating:
Summary: Legal Help For Biblical Counselors
Review: Bullis and Mazur's book, Legal Issues and Religious Counseling offers a clear description of how members of the clergy and other religious counselors, as well as their local and national religious organizations may become legally vulnerable. The authors examine the three most litigated areas in clergy counseling: breaches of confidentiality; sexual misconduct; and the content and quality of counseling services. In examining these three areas, they have cited real cases and discussed how the courts have ruled and the legal doctrines that were the basis of the rulings. They conclude the book by arguing for prevention. Counselors must conduct themselves in the highest ethical standards, being always careful to be familiar with the laws in their states. Counselors and their religious organizations must secure adequate liability insurance in view of the increased incidents of litigations being brought against religious counselors.

As a quick reference guide for the clergy and other religious counselors, this book is quite helpful. It brevity however does not permit it to be exhaustive and therefore one must recognize that it does not answer most or all of the questions that might be raised. While the discussions of these three areas of suits and the law in general are adequate, they are not exhaustive and one must seek additional supporting information from other sources and must avail himself of the advise of an attorney to be fully informed.