Understanding Competency: Working with Clients and Mental Health Experts to Ensure Reliable Assessments

There are many things to consider in representing an incompetent client. In some cases, it may be obvious that a client is incompetent. But in others, symptoms affecting competency may be subtle, and yet have a tremendous impact on your client’s ability to work with you and assist rationally in his defense. During this presentation we will discuss existing constitutional law on competency to stand trial, identifying and recognizing symptoms and signs of incompetency, best practices for investigating incompetency and working with mental health experts to ensure a reliable assessment, diagnosis and finding.