A 5260 hold in California is a second 14-day period of involuntary psychiatric treatment that a designated facility can impose on a person who, after completing an initial 14-day hold, still presents an imminent threat of taking their own life. It sits at the end of a specific sequence of holds under the Lanterman-Petris-Short (LPS) Act, and it applies only to suicidality. People considered dangerous to others or gravely disabled fall under different statutes with different rules.
Where the 5260 Hold Fits in the LPS Sequence
No one is placed directly on a 5260 hold. It follows two earlier stages.
The process opens with a 5150 hold, which lets a peace officer or certain mental health professionals detain a person for up to 72 hours when a mental health disorder makes them a danger to others, a danger to themselves, or gravely disabled.1California Legislative Information. California Code WIC 5150 – Involuntary Detention for Evaluation and Treatment During those 72 hours, the person is evaluated and offered voluntary treatment.
If the criteria are still met at the end of that window, the facility can certify the person for up to 14 days of intensive treatment under a 5250 hold. This requires a finding that the person remains dangerous to themselves or others, or remains gravely disabled, and has been offered but has not accepted voluntary treatment.2California Legislative Information. California Code WIC 5250 – Certification for Intensive Treatment
Only when that 14-day period expires does Section 5260 become possible, and only for suicidal patients. Gravely disabled individuals go instead to a 30-day certification under Section 5270.15.3California Legislative Information. California Welfare and Institutions Code 5270.15 – Additional Treatment for Gravely Disabled Persons People who have shown danger to others through physical violence or serious threats can be held up to 180 days under Section 5300.4California Legislative Information. California Welfare and Institutions Code 5300 – Postcertification Treatment A 5260 hold is not a general “dangerousness” hold; if the concern is harm to others, this is the wrong statute.
The Four Criteria for a 5260 Hold
All four conditions below must be satisfied before the additional 14 days can begin.5California Legislative Information. California Code WIC 5260 – Additional Intensive Treatment of Suicidal Persons
- Professional staff at the facility must find that the person presents an imminent threat of taking their own life. The risk has to be current, not general or historical.
- During the initial 14-day treatment or the earlier 72-hour evaluation, the person must have threatened or attempted suicide, or the original detention itself must have been based on a suicide threat or attempt.
- The person must have been offered voluntary treatment and declined it. Someone willing to remain in treatment voluntarily cannot be certified.
- The receiving facility must be properly equipped, staffed, county-designated for this level of care, and willing to admit the person.
How the Certification Is Signed
The additional 14 days begin with a second notice of certification. Two qualified professionals must sign it: the person in charge of the facility that provided the initial 14-day treatment, and either a physician (ideally a board-qualified psychiatrist) or a licensed psychologist with a doctoral degree and at least five years of postgraduate experience diagnosing and treating mental disorders.6Justia Law. California Welfare and Institutions Code 5260-5268 – Additional Intensive Treatment Whoever signs as the physician or psychologist must have personally taken part in evaluating the patient and finding the imminent suicidal threat.
If the facility administrator is also the evaluating clinician, a second clinician has to co-sign. Where no physician or psychologist is available for that second signature, a social worker or registered nurse who participated in the evaluation may sign. The two-signature rule keeps any single clinician from extending someone’s confinement on their own.
The Certification Review Hearing
The person is entitled to a certification review hearing within four days of certification, unless they have already asked for judicial review through a writ of habeas corpus.7California Legislative Information. California Code WIC 5256 – Certification Review Hearing The patient or their attorney can request a postponement, but the facility cannot push the hearing back on its own.
At the hearing, you have the right to an attorney or a county patients’ rights advocate, who meets with you beforehand to explain the process and help you prepare. A representative of the treating facility, such as a psychiatrist, psychologist, social worker, or registered nurse, must appear to explain why continued detention is justified.
These hearings are less formal than a trial. Strict evidence rules do not apply, and any relevant information can come in. The facility has to prove the criteria by clear and convincing evidence, which is a higher standard than the ordinary civil “preponderance” test and puts the burden on the facility, not the patient.
Rights That Stay With You During the Hold
Involuntary confinement does not erase your civil rights. California requires that a list of rights be prominently posted in the community’s predominant languages and explained in a way the patient can understand, and every patient receives a copy of the state’s patients’ rights handbook on admission.8Justia Law. California Welfare and Institutions Code 5325-5337 – Legal and Civil Rights of Persons Involuntarily Detained
- You can wear your own clothes, keep personal possessions and toilet articles, and spend a reasonable amount of your own money.
- You can see visitors daily, make and receive confidential phone calls, and send and receive unopened mail.
- You can see a patients’ rights advocate who has no clinical or administrative authority over your care.
- You can refuse electroconvulsive treatment and psychosurgery.
Facilities can restrict individual items when there is a safety reason, but they cannot deny these rights across the board. A patients’ rights advocate is the contact point inside the facility if you believe a right is being violated.
Refusing Antipsychotic Medication
One of the most consequential rights during a 5260 hold is the right to refuse antipsychotic medication. If you say no, the facility cannot simply override that. The treatment team first has to determine that alternatives are unlikely to meet your needs, and then obtain a judicial finding that you lack the capacity to make the treatment decision.9California Legislative Information. California Welfare and Institutions Code 5332 – Antipsychotic Medication
That proceeding is often called a Riese hearing, after the case that established the right. The question is narrow: can you understand your situation, weigh the risks and benefits of the proposed medication, and reason through the decision? Whether your choice is medically wise is not what’s being decided. If you can reason through it, your refusal stands even when clinicians disagree. Only a court finding of incapacity opens the door to involuntary medication.
There is one exception. In a genuine psychiatric emergency where life or safety is at immediate risk, medication can be given over objection before a capacity hearing. The emergency has to be real and documented, and the medication is limited to what the emergency requires.9California Legislative Information. California Welfare and Institutions Code 5332 – Antipsychotic Medication
Asking a Court to Order Your Release
Anyone held under the LPS Act can request release through a writ of habeas corpus. You can ask yourself, or someone can ask on your behalf, at any time during the hold.10California Legislative Information. California Welfare and Institutions Code 5275 – Habeas Corpus
The request goes to the person who delivered the certification notice or to any member of the treatment staff. That staff member has to provide a form to sign and then deliver it to the person in charge of the facility, who must notify the superior court as soon as possible. Deliberately failing to process a release request is a misdemeanor.10California Legislative Information. California Welfare and Institutions Code 5275 – Habeas Corpus
A habeas petition gets you a full judicial hearing in superior court, which is more formal than the certification review hearing. If your certification review hearing already happened, habeas gives you a second look before a judge. If you file for habeas before that hearing takes place, the judicial review replaces the certification review hearing.
Release Before 14 Days
A 5260 hold is not required to run the full 14 days. The psychiatrist responsible for the person’s treatment must release the patient as soon as the person has improved enough to leave or is willing to accept voluntary treatment.6Justia Law. California Welfare and Institutions Code 5260-5268 – Additional Intensive Treatment Many patients are released early.
When both a psychiatrist and a psychologist have been involved and work collaboratively, either can authorize early release after consulting the other. If they disagree, the facility’s medical director decides. Continuing to hold someone who no longer meets the criteria exposes the responsible individuals to civil liability.
What a 5260 Hold Does to Firearm Rights
A 5260 hold triggers a five-year ban on owning, possessing, or purchasing firearms, other deadly weapons, or ammunition. The clock starts on the date of release from the facility, not the date the hold began.11California Legislative Information. California Code WIC 8103 – Firearm Prohibition The same five-year prohibition attaches to certifications under Section 5250 or Section 5270.15, so someone who went from a 5250 straight into a 5260 has one five-year period running from the final release date, not two stacked bans.
A more severe rule applies to repeat holds. A person admitted to a designated facility as a danger to self or others more than once within a single year faces a lifetime firearm ban.11California Legislative Information. California Code WIC 8103 – Firearm Prohibition
There is a way to petition for restoration. Someone subject to the five-year ban can file a request with the superior court in their county of residence, and the court must schedule a hearing within 60 days. The petitioner can request a confidential hearing closed to the public. Restoration is not automatic; the court evaluates whether the person still poses a risk.
What Happens When the 14 Days End
When a 5260 hold expires, the facility has to release the person unless another legal basis for continued detention exists. The hold cannot be renewed or re-imposed for another 14 days.
If the treatment team believes the person remains gravely disabled and cannot provide for their own food, clothing, shelter, personal safety, or necessary medical care, the next step is typically a petition for an LPS conservatorship under Section 5350.12Justia Law. California Welfare and Institutions Code 5350-5371 – Conservatorship Under California law, “gravely disabled” means unable to meet those basic needs because of a mental health disorder, a severe substance use disorder, or both.13California Legislative Information. California Code WIC 5008 – Definitions A person is not gravely disabled if family, friends, or others are willing and able to help meet those needs, though that willingness has to be confirmed in writing. A conservatorship is a much larger legal action than a hold, and the proposed conservatee can demand a court or jury trial that must begin within 10 days of the demand.
If the person has demonstrated danger to others through violence or serious threats during the hold, the facility may instead petition for up to 180 days of additional confinement under Section 5300, which requires a superior court petition supported by detailed affidavits about the dangerous behavior.4California Legislative Information. California Welfare and Institutions Code 5300 – Postcertification Treatment
For many patients, the 14 days end with discharge and a referral to outpatient care. The hold itself does not create any ongoing obligation to stay in treatment after release. The firearm restriction, however, remains in place whether or not you continue with care.