I have recent experience in the English family court (county court) in which one of the partys mental health history was required for the case to progress.

The judge could not order disclosure, but requested and recommended it to the relevant party as a way of clarifying that issue.

Disclosure could not be granted without consent by way of a form signed by the party whose mental health was in question.

It would have been noted had consent been refused as the court would have been concerned as to what the motivation for refusal was, but the judge did not have the power to order the release of the records in question.


It all depends on the dispute and the reasons, but in the case of a family dispute it may be that you have to accept grim realities and come to terms with them and develop more realistic expectations for the future about how things are likely to progress.