Background:

Washington Law Against Discrimination.

Washington law recognizes the right of its inhabitants to be free from the practice of discrimination in employment, credit and insurance transactions, places of public resort, accommodation, or amusement, and real property transactions because of race, creed, color, national origin, families with children, sex, marital status, sexual orientation, age, honorably discharged veteran or military status, or the presence of any sensory, mental, or physical disability or the use of a trained dog guide or service animal by a person with a disability.

Any individual deeming himself or herself to be injured by a discriminatory act as defined above may bring a civil action to enjoin further violations, recover the actual damages sustained by the person, or both. Alternatively, the individual may file a complaint with the Human Rights Commission (HRC).

Damages.

Economic damages are objectively verifiable monetary losses, including medical expenses, loss of earnings, burial costs, loss of use of property, cost of replacement or repair, cost of obtaining substitute domestic services, loss of employment, and loss of business or employment opportunities.

Noneconomic damages are subjective, nonmonetary losses, including, but not limited to pain, suffering, inconvenience, mental anguish, disability or disfigurement incurred by the injured party, emotional distress, loss of society and companionship, loss of consortium, injury to reputation and humiliation, and destruction of the parent-child relationship.

Health Care Privileges.

Washington statutes and court rules protect, among certain other communications, the disclosure of information shared between a physician and patient and a psychologist and client.

A physician may not, without the consent of his or her patient, be examined in a civil action as to any information acquired in attending such patient, which was necessary to enable him or her to prescribe or act for the patient. However, 90 days after filing an action for personal injuries or wrongful death, the claimant is deemed to have waived this physician-patient privilege.

The statutory psychologist-client privilege provides that confidential communications between a client and a psychologist shall be privileged against compulsory disclosure to the same extent and subject to the same conditions as confidential communications between attorney and client. The attorney-client privilege, in turn, provides that an attorney shall not, without the consent of the client, be examined as to any communication made by the client to him or her, or his or her advice given thereon in the course of professional employment.

Seeking Noneconomic Damages under the Washington Law Against Discrimination.

Two years ago, a law was enacted to provide that when a claimant requests noneconomic damages under the Washington Law Against Discrimination, a claimant does not place his or her health at issue or waive the physician-patient or psychologist-client privilege, unless the claimant:

alleges a specific diagnosable physical or psychiatric injury as a proximate result of the respondents' conduct;
relies on the records or testimony of a health care provider or expert witness to seek general damages; or
alleges failure to accommodate a disability or alleges discrimination on the basis of a disability.

Any waiver under the exceptions above is limited to health care records and communication between a claimant and his or her provider(s):

created and occurring in the period beginning two years before the first alleged unlawful act for which damages are sought, and ending at the last date for which damages are sought (unless the court finds exceptional circumstances to order a longer period of time); and
relating specifically to the diagnosable injury, the health care provider on whom the claimant relies in the action, or the disability specifically at issue in the allegation.