Rix's Expert Psychiatric Evidence

Abstract

Rix's Expert Psychiatric Evidence is a resource manual and guide for psychiatrists who provide expert testimony. It covers the entire expert psychiatric witness journey, from training and negotiation of instructions, through medicolegal assessment, report preparation, experts' meetings and joint statements, and conferences with counsel, to giving evidence in court along with advice on keeping up to date. Introductory chapters include essential information on the law of expert evidence and the different procedures in the criminal, civil, family and coroners' courts. It now includes in depth information on all eight jurisdictions of the British Isles. It is richly illustrated with reported and unreported cases including many important ones from the previous ten years, particularly relating to vulnerable witnesses and defendants. The book is supplemented by a library of online letters, forms, a new format report template and other documents which can be downloaded and adapted by readers for their own use.

Plausible subjective experience versus fallible corroborative evidence: The formulation of insanity in Nigerian criminal courts

“…Second, this paper contributes to expert witness education in reminding the expert witness that their clinical assessments seek to answer critical legal questions which have direct bearing on justice and the culpability or otherwise of patient-defendants (48,68). In so doing, the psychiatrist is reminded that the ultimate issue is one for the court to decide (Evidence Act, 2011; (12,47)) but great direction may be obtained from well-framed expert opinions based on the available evidence which may sometimes be unreliable in the eyes of the court.…”

“…Third, this review could potentially educate judicial actors in Nigeria on the need to rely appropriately on the assistance of credible expert witnesses in making non-dispositive determination of the existence of mental disorder in defendants within the overall context of the adjudication of insanity cases (2,43,69). Expert witnesses have a more crucial role to play in cases where the defendant only has subjective claims of mental illness as the court would benefit significantly from honest, neutral and relatively objective opinion evidence as is ethically required of experts (64,(69)(70)(71). Fourth, the disposal of insanity cases has implication for the practice of forensic mental health both within the secure forensic care context and prison mental health care in terms of the assessment and treatment of those adjudged as mentally disordered offenders.…”

Parole, where psychiatry meets public protection

“…There are no specific procedural rules governing expert witnesses in Parole Board hearings in England and Wales as there are for criminal courts. Rix et al (2020) provide detailed guidance for witnesses to criminal courts, including procedural rules that govern admissibility of evidence and BOX 3 Professional witnesses to the Parole Board for England and Wales…”

“…duties of an expert witness. We consider that the standards and rules governing expert evidence to criminal courts (Rix 2020) apply equally to evidence to parole hearings, although they are not laid down in statutory instruments.…”

A child psychiatrist's expert roles in the criminal court: children as vulnerable witnesses

“…This issue was prominent in a case that was decided eventually by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, Pora v The Queen [2015]. A forensic psychologist's evidence was ruled inadmissible on the basis that, in trenchantly asserting that the appellant's confessions were unreliable, he was supplanting the court's role as the ultimate decision maker on a matter that was central to the outcome of the case (Rix 2020).…”