---
kind: "section"
citation: "42 U.S.C. § 10807"
title: "42"
title_heading: "The Public Health and Welfare"
number: "10807"
heading: "Legal actions"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/42/10807"
units:
  - "Chapter 114 — Protection and Advocacy for Individuals with Mental Illness"
  - "Subchapter I — Protection and Advocacy Systems"
  - "Part A — Establishment of Systems"
---

# §10807. Legal actions

- (a) Prior to instituting any legal action in a Federal or [State](/usc/42/10802.md?p=7) court on behalf of a[^1] [individual with mental illness](/usc/42/10802.md?p=4), an [eligible system](/usc/42/10802.md?p=2), or a [State agency](/usc/42/300s–3.md?p=12) or [nonprofit](/usc/42/300s–3.md?p=3) organization which entered into a contract with an [eligible system](/usc/42/10802.md?p=2) under [section 10804(a) of this title](/usc/42/10804.md?p=a), shall exhaust in a timely manner all administrative remedies where appropriate. If, in pursuing administrative remedies, the system, [agency](/usc/42/8262.md?p=1), or organization determines that any matter with respect to such individual will not be resolved within a reasonable time, the system, [agency](/usc/42/8262.md?p=1), or organization may pursue alternative remedies, including the initiation of a legal action.
- (b) [Subsection (a)](#a) does not apply to any legal action instituted to prevent or eliminate imminent serious harm to a[^1] [individual with mental illness](/usc/42/10802.md?p=4).

## Footnotes

[^1]: So in original. Probably should be “an”.

## Source credit

(Pub. L. 99–319, title I, § 107, May 23, 1986, 100 Stat. 482; Pub. L. 102–173, § 10(1), Nov. 27, 1991, 105 Stat. 1219.)

## Notes

### Editorial Notes

### Amendments

1991—Pub. L. 102–173 substituted “individual with mental illness” for “mentally ill individual” in subsecs. (a) and (b).