Treatment Law℠
/ˈtriːtmənt lɔː/ (TREET-mənt LAW)
noun
A law practice dedicated to providing representation and advocacy to families and individuals during mental health and behavioral health challenges or crises that may require legal intervention.
What Is Treatment Law℠?
The calls we receive rarely begin with a legal question. Most often, they come from a family member or friend of someone experiencing a mental or behavioral health crisis. By the time they call, the crisis has upended the lives of the person experiencing it and those who care about them.
The situation commonly involves treatment challenges or mental-health-fueled behaviors that draw in hospitals, government agencies, law enforcement, and sometimes courts. Suddenly, there are questions about involuntary detentions, mental health proceedings, criminal charges, evictions, or restraining orders—often several of these at once. One crisis, multiple systems—each with its own rules, timelines, and consequences.
Sometimes a crisis builds gradually. Sometimes it arrives without warning.
Treatment Law℠ is built for these moments—before a legal problem develops, as one emerges, or after someone is already facing serious legal challenges or consequences.
Why We Founded Treatment Law℠
Lee Blumen spent more than 25 years as an Orange County Public Defender, representing thousands of people with mental health and behavioral challenges — often undiagnosed and untreated — and watching their families search for help with nowhere to turn. When his own family faced mental illness and a broken system, he realized that only his legal knowledge made getting help possible. Most families don't have that advantage. He retired in 2014 and founded a law practice dedicated to helping families and individuals facing mental health and behavioral health challenges.
Terri Tauro spent nearly 20 years as a criminal defense attorney, including instrumental work in Orange County's Young Adult Court — a program grounded in how mental health, trauma, and brain development affect people ages 18 to 25. In the mental health and criminal courts, she saw the same pattern Lee had: individuals and families caught between systems that don't communicate, facing legal consequences for untreated conditions, and unable to find anyone who could address both the legal crisis and the underlying need for treatment.
In April 2024, Terri joined Lee as a law partner, forming Blumen & Tauro to expand the Treatment Law℠ practice. Between them, nearly 50 years of experience pointed to the same void: the treatment world and the legal world barely speak each other's language. A criminal defense lawyer may not know how a psychiatric hold works or what a conservatorship investigation involves. An estate attorney may never have set foot in a mental health courtroom. Doctors understand the illness but not the legal machinery around it. Families get bounced between systems and told at every stop, "That's not really what we do." Even some judges and seasoned lawyers admit this territory is unfamiliar to them.
Someone has to know the whole map. That's what we do.
Who We Help
Families:
We advise, guide, and represent families seeking LPS conservatorships, as well as families exploring alternatives such as CARE Court, Assisted Outpatient Treatment, or voluntary placement in a private or county treatment program. We also represent family members who are named as victims in criminal cases — parents and spouses who called for help, not prosecution. They are entitled to their own advocate to tell the prosecutor and the court what they truly want: treatment for their loved one, not a conviction and not jail.
Individuals:
We advise, guide and represent people whose rights are being denied or who are being held longer than the law allows, and we advocate for the least restrictive setting that still supports meaningful treatment. We represent individuals charged with crimes stemming from mental illness or behavioral health crises, pursuing treatment-focused alternatives to punishment — including Mental Health Diversion, specialty court enrollment, and dismissal of charges when warranted.
Professionals and Facilities:
We advise and represent physicians, therapists, treatment centers, and others who encounter legal questions while caring for patients with complex behavioral health needs.
What We Do
We don't practice one type of law in isolation. We practice across the systems families and individuals encounter when mental health and behavioral health challenges collide with the law:
This work demands deep legal experience in both criminal justice and mental health systems — a rare combination. The two systems operate by different rules, and families who need both are often referred from one attorney to another, repeating their story and losing critical time. Treatment Law℠ ends that fragmentation: one practice, one team, and treatment-focused advocacy that spans both disciplines.
Why This Matters
Mental illness and behavioral health crises are medical problems. Too often, they become legal ones. Families contact us not because they want to litigate, but because the systems designed to help have failed them — and legal intervention has become the only remaining path to treatment and safety. Individuals facing holds or charges need an attorney not simply because of what they're accused of, but because their rights, their treatment, and their futures are at stake in proceedings they don't understand and no one has explained.
Hospitals, law enforcement, courts, and county agencies often operate in silos. They rarely see the whole person, let alone the whole family. For decades we watched that gap swallow people — families losing hope, individuals deteriorating because no one could coordinate treatment and legal advocacy at the same time.
This work isn't easy. These cases don't fit templates, the systems are deeply flawed, and no outcome is guaranteed. We do it because it matters — to the families who finally find someone who understands what they're going through, and to the individuals who deserve both treatment and dignity.
What Treatment Law℠ Is Not
Treatment Law℠ is a legal practice, and we are attorneys. We do not provide medical, psychiatric, psychological, clinical, therapeutic, or emergency services, and we do not operate a treatment program or a crisis hotline. We provide legal representation and advocacy where mental health and behavioral health challenges intersect with legal systems.
If someone is in immediate danger or facing a life-threatening emergency, call 911. For mental health crisis support, call or text 988.
Our Approach
We Listen:
We take time to understand what’s happening, what’s been tried, and what you’re hoping to achieve.
We Explain:
These processes are complex. We walk you through what’s happening, what your rights and options are, and what comes next.
We Collaborate:
We work closely with the mental health professionals, treatment providers, and agencies involved in your loved one’s care.
We Advocate:
Wherever decisions are made—in and out of court, with treatment facilities, government agencies, and other decision-makers—we represent our clients with focus, experience, and determination.
We Look Beyond the Crisis:
When possible, we help families build long-term strategies to support treatment, reduce future crises, and create stability.
We’re Here to Help
If you or someone you care about is facing a mental health or behavioral health challenge that may require legal intervention, reach out. In a consultation, we'll assess your situation, explain your options, and determine whether we can help.