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Cal. WIC § 6251

This is the official text of Cal. WIC § 6251, part of California’s Welfare and Institutions Code — governs public social services, juvenile justice, and mental health/developmental disability services.

Not legal advice. This page reproduces the official text of a government statute for reference only. Laws change, and how a statute applies depends on your specific facts. For advice about your situation, consult a licensed attorney in your state.

Official statutory text

Wherever, on the basis of a petition, provision is made in this code for issuing and delivering an order for examination and detention directing that a person be apprehended and taken before a judge of a superior court for a hearing and examination on an allegation of being a person subject to judicial commitment, the petition shall be in substantially the following form:

In the Superior Court of the State of California
For the County of____

The People

For the Best Interest and Protection of ⎫


as a ⎪
and Concerning

and ⎬
⎪ Petition

Respondents ⎪

_______, residing at ______ (tel. _______), being duly sworn deposes and says: That there is now in the county in the City or Town of __________
a person named ______, who resides at ______, and who is believed to be a ______. That the person is ____ years of age; that __ the person is ____ (sex) and that __ the person is ____ (single, married, widowed, or divorced); and that ____ occupation is ____.
That the facts because of which petitioner believes that the person is a ____ are as follows: That __ the person, at _______ in the county, on the____ day of ____, 20__,

That petitioner’s interest in and case is
That petitioner believes that said person is ____ as defined in Section ____.

That the persons responsible for the care, support, and maintenance of the ____, and their relationship to the person are, so far as known to the petitioner, as follows:

(Give names, addresses, and relationship of persons named as respondents)
Wherefore, petitioner prays that examination be made to determine the state of the mental health of ____, alleged to be ____, and that such measures be taken for the best interest and protection of said ____, in respect to the person’s supervision, care and treatment, as may be necessary and provided by law.

Petitioner

Subscribed and sworn to before me this ____ day of ______, 20__.

________________________________, Clerk of the Court
By _____________________________________________ Deputy

Status: in_force · Read it on the official government site

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About this page: Statute text is reproduced from official government publishers via the Open US Law dataset (Vaquill AI, snapshot v2026.08, CC BY 4.0). Primary legislative text like this is public domain under the government-edicts doctrine (Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, 2020). We link every section back to its official source so you can verify it independently.