The legal issues of the Orne/Sexton case of doctor/patient confidentiality are looked at. The author looks at the laws relating to this issue from the following states: Massachusettes, Pennsylvania, the District of Columbia, and Maryland. The author concludes that state laws increasingly grant patients and their heirs access to their medical records. However, when the records are highly sensitive, as is the case with most mental health records, a higher threshold of need should be demonstrated.