Contact

What to include in an enquiry

There is no need to send papers at the enquiry stage. A few lines covering the points below is usually enough to establish whether an assessment is appropriate, when it could be undertaken and what it would involve.

• the charge or charges, and the court;
• the stage the proceedings have reached, and any fixed hearing dates;
• where the defendant is currently held or living;
• the nature of the concern, in outline - difficulty taking instructions, a known diagnosis, a cognitive impairment, or something observed in conference;
• whether any psychiatric or psychological report already exists in the case;
• the funding position, and whether prior authority has been sought.

A response confirming availability and timescales generally follows within a few working days.

Urgent matters

Where a hearing date makes the ordinary timescale unworkable, say so in the first message rather than after instructions have been sent. Expedited assessment can often be arranged, but only if the constraint is known at the outset.

About the practice

Instructions on insanity, automatism, diminished responsibility and fitness to plead are accepted by experienced consultant forensic psychiatrists working across England and Wales. Assessments are undertaken wherever the defendant is - prison, secure or general hospital, police station, the community, or remotely where circumstances require it.

This site deals with the psychiatric defences. For fitness to plead, see pritchardcriteria.uk. Details of the wider practice and of the individual psychiatrists who accept instructions are at forensicpsychiatryexperts.co.uk.