Substitute Senate Bill No. 154 - Public Act No. 14-103

• Establishes hearing timelines within ten business days of application filing in Probate Court for psychiatric disability proceedings and requires courts to appoint counsel for indigent respondents from a state-provided panel of attorneys.

• Requires Probate Courts to obtain certificates from at least two impartial physicians (including one psychiatrist) who have examined the respondent within ten days prior to hearing, and mandates recording of hearing testimony for appeal purposes.

• Allows respondents to elect voluntary hospital status at any time prior to involuntary commitment adjudication, and establishes annual review hearings for involuntary patients with mandatory biennial hearings if the last review was not a hearing.

• Designates the Probate Court Administrator (rather than the Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services) to prescribe uniform commitment forms and establish compensation rates for court-appointed physicians.

• Expands pilot truancy clinics to operate in both Waterbury and New Haven Regional Children's Probate Courts, and permits appointment of successor conservators who assume duties upon resignation, removal, incapacity, or death of the original conservator.

• Applies Superior Court rules of evidence to all Probate Court hearings under psychiatric commitment and conservatorship proceedings.