In In re Tellez, the Supreme Court held that trial courts must advise criminal defendants that they can be civilly committed to a state hospital at the completion of their prison term if they plead guilty or no contest to certain qualifying sex offenses.
The holding doesn’t help the defendant in this case, however, because he failed to demonstrate that he would not have accepted his plea deal if he had been advised by his counsel about the possibility of civil commitment.
Justice Liu filed a concurring opinion, joined by Justice Evans (who authored the majority opinion), expressing the view that defense counsel have a duty to advise their clients about the risk of civil commitment, and that failure to do so amounts to ineffective assistance of counsel.