How Assisted Outpatient Treatment (AOT) Ends
How Assisted Outpatient Treatment (AOT) Ends
This publication is a fact sheet that talks about how you can end your AOT order.
Disclaimer: This publication is legal information only and is not legal advice about your individual situation. It is current as of the date posted. We try to update our materials regularly. However, laws are regularly changing. If you want to make sure the law has not changed, contact DRC or another legal office.
Assisted Outpatient Treatment, also known as AOT, is court ordered outpatient treatment for people with mental health disabilities.
This publication is a fact sheet that talks about how you can end your AOT order.
You have a right to an attorney if the county has asked the court to order you to AOT. If you want a lawyer but don’t have enough money, you can ask the judge to give you a public defender.
After you’ve been ordered to AOT, there are three ways that AOT can end. You can end AOT by showing at a hearing, or at a writ of habeas corpus, that you do not still qualify for AOT, or the AOT can order expire.
- For more information about how you are ordered to AOT, you can read the publication called “How You are Ordered Into AOT.”
- For more information about whether or not you still qualify for AOT, you can read the publication called “Who Can Be Ordered to AOT.”
Ask for a Hearing
- Every 60 days, the director of the program must give an official statement (called an affidavit) saying you still qualify for AOT.1
- If you disagree, you have a right to request a court hearing about whether or not you still qualify for AOT under the law.2
- The director will have to show (prove) that you still qualify for AOT under the law.3
- For more information about whether you qualify for AOT under the law, you can read the publication called “Who Can Be Ordered to AOT.”
File a Writ of Habeas Corpus
- You can file a writ of habeas corpus when you believe you are illegally, or wrongfully, being ordered to AOT.4
- At any time that you are in AOT, you can file a writ of habeas corpus if you think that you no longer qualify for AOT under the law. At a court hearing, the director of the AOT program will have to prove to the judge that you still qualify.
- For more information about whether you qualify for AOT under the law, you can read the publication called “Who Can Be Ordered to AOT.”
Expiration of AOT Order
- The last way that AOT can end is if the period of your AOT court order ends and the director does not ask the court to order you into AOT for more time.
Additional Information
If you need more information or have questions you can:
- Ask your lawyer. You have a right to an attorney if the county has asked (petitioned) the court to order you to AOT. If you want a lawyer but don’t have enough money, ask the judge to give you a public defender. You will only have to pay the public defender if you have the money to.
- Contact your county’s Patient’s Rights Advocate. To find the Patient’s Rights Advocate where you live, (916) 504-5810 and ask for your local Patient’s Rights Advocate or click on this link: https://www.disabilityrightsca.org/post/patients-rights-advocacy-directory.
- Call Disability Rights California at 1-800-776-5746.