After Christopher Landry died by suicide, his parents sought his psychiatric records from psychiatrist Crit Cooksey while investigating potential medical-malpractice, wrongful-death, and survival claims. Cooksey refused, asserting Georgia’s psychiatrist-patient privilege. The trial court ordered production of all treatment and history records through its equitable powers, without reviewing the files or separating privileged from nonprivileged material. The Supreme Court of Georgia held that equity could not override the statutory privilege. Georgia law protects confidential psychiatrist-patient communications even when a patient’s treatment or injuries are placed at issue, and the privilege survives the patient’s death. The court therefore could not compel disclosure merely because the records might help the parents investigate a claim or satisfy the expert-affidavit requirement for malpractice pleading. The Court remanded for the trial court to review the files, determine which records were nonprivileged, decide whether Christopher had waived any privilege, and order disclosure of only material falling into those categories. Justice Benham, joined by Justice Hunstein, dissented, reasoning that the estate representative should be able to waive the privilege when asserting a malpractice claim against the treating psychiatrist. The order was affirmed in part, reversed in part, and remanded with directions.