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Menninger reviews current literature and court decisions on psychiatric malpractice under five headings: patients' acts of violence; patients' suicide; physical and emotional injuries to a patient that arise out of negligent diagnosis or treatment; faulty initiation, conduct, or termination of treatment; and liability arising for employer, supervisor, or consultant. Recent legal cases have addressed failure to consider the full spectrum of etiology and treatment, biological and psychodynamic, of a psychiatric disorder. Psychiatrists of all orientations are susceptible to this charge and to an associated claim of failing to educate themselves about new findings in the specialty. Sexual intimacy between patient and psychotherapist is viewed as malpractice. Increasingly, courts acknowledge and compensate for emotional injury that results from it. The Menninger Staff-Patient Relationship Study Group has identified characteristics of patients and therapists who are likely to become involved in such encounters. The author offers specific advice for preventing or mitigating malpractice in each category and for coping with lawsuits.