Law Commons^™

The Death Penalty Spectacle, Tung Yin

University of Denver Criminal Law Review

No abstract provided.

Why Exempting Negligent Doctors May Reduce Suicide: An Empirical Analysis, John Shahar Dillbary, Griffin Edwards, Fredrick E. Vars

Indiana Law Journal

This Article is the first to empirically analyze the impact of tort liability on suicide. Counter-intuitively, our analysis shows that suicide rates increase when potential tort liability is expanded to include psychiatrists—the very defendants who would seem best able to prevent suicide. Using a fifty-state panel regression for 1981 to 2013, we find that states which allowed psychiatrists (but not other doctors) to be liable for malpractice resulting in suicide experienced a 9.3% increase in suicides. On the other hand, and more intuitively, holding non-psychiatrist doctors liable de-creases suicide by 10.7%. These countervailing effects can be explained by psychiatrists facing …

Law Library Blog (March 2018): Legal Beagle's Blog Archive, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Law Library Newsletters/Blog

No abstract provided.

Healer, Witness, Or Double Agent? Reexamining The Ethics Of Forensic Psychiatry, Matthew U. Scherer

Journal of Law and Health

In recent years, psychiatrists have become ever more prevalent in American courtrooms. Consequently, the issue of when the usual rules of medical ethics should apply to forensic psychiatric encounters has taken on increased importance and is a continuing topic of discussion among both legal and medical scholars. A number of approaches to the problem of forensic psychiatric ethics have been proposed, but none adequately addresses the issues that arise when a forensic encounter develops therapeutic characteristics. This article looks to the rules governing the lawyer-client relationship as a model for a new approach to forensic psychiatric ethics. This new model …

The Failure Of The Federal Courts To Incorporate O'Connor's Dangerousness Requirement Into The Standards Utilized In Actions Challenging Wrongful Civil Comments, Svetlana Walker

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Educational Institutions And The Prohibition On Disability Discrimination, Greg Walsh

Law Papers and Journal Articles

A claim of discrimination by a medical student with disabilities was considered by the Administrative and Equal Opportunity Division of the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal in BKY v The University of Newcastle [2014] NSWCATAD 39. The Tribunal held that the university's decision to reject the student's application for an extension on the maximum enrolment period permitted under university regulations so she could complete her medical degree constituted discrimination under the Anti-Discrimination Act 1977 (NSW). The case emphasises the importance of educational institutions taking into account the intellectual, emotional and social challenges persons with disabilities may have with their academic …

The Dangers Of Psychotropic Medication For Mentally Ill Children: Where Is The Child’S Voice In Consenting To Medication? An Empirical Study, Donald H. Stone

All Faculty Scholarship

When a child with a mental illness is being prescribed psychotropic medication. who decides whether the child should take the medication — the parent or the child? What if the child is sixteen years of age? What if the child is in foster care: Should the parent or social service agency decide? Prior to administering psychotropic medication, what specific information should be provided to the person authorized to consent on behalf of the child? Should children be permitted to refuse psychotropic medications? If so, at what age should a child he able to refuse such medication What procedures should be …

Introducing Patient Scope Of Care: Psychologists, Psychiatrists, And The Privilege To Prescribe Drugs, Rachel P. Berland

Saint Louis University Journal of Health Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

Confine Is Fine: Have The Non-Dangerous Mentally Ill Lost Their Right To Liberty? An Empirical Study To Unravel The Psychiatrist’S Crystal Ball, Donald H. Stone

All Faculty Scholarship

This Article will examine the reverse trend in civil commitment laws in the wake of recent tragedies and discuss the effect of broader civil commitment standards on the care and treatment of the mentally ill. The 2007 Virginia Tech shooting, the 2011 shooting of Congresswoman Giffords, and the 2012 Aurora movie theatre shooting have spurred fierce debates about the dangerousness of mentally ill and serve as cautionary tale about what happens when warning signs go unnoticed and opportunities for early intervention missed. This piece will explore the misconception about the role medication and inpatient civil commitments should play in prevention …

Capital Punishment, Psychiatrists And The Potential Bottleneck Of Competence , Jacob M. Appel

Journal of Law and Health

The purpose of this paper is to merge two largely separate bodies of writing on the subject of psychiatric participation in capital punishment. Much has already been written from the perspective of legal academics regarding the rights of prisoners to be free from unwanted medical care if the purpose of providing such care is to render them fit for execution. Medical ethicists have also written much on the degree to which physicians, and specifically psychiatrists, may participate in facilitating the death penalty before they become so complicit as to violate accepted standards of professional ethics. Surprisingly, these two fields of …

The Tail Still Wags The Dog: The Pervasive And Inappropriate Influence By The Psychiatric Profession On The Civil Commitment Process, William Brooks

Scholarly Works

The imposition of substantive and procedural protections in the civil commitment process thirty years ago created the expectation that courts would scrutinize commitment decisions by psychiatrists more closely and serve as a check on psychiatric decision-making. This has not happened.

Today, psychiatrists continue to play an overly influential role in the civil commitment process. Psychiatrists make initial commitment decisions that often lack accuracy because they rely on clinical judgment only. Furthermore, many psychiatrists do not want legal standards interfering with treatment decisions, and the nebulous nature of the concept of dangerousness enables doctors to make pretextual assessments of danger. At …

A Healer Or An Executioner: The Proper Role Of A Psychiatrist In A Criminal Justice System, Gregory Dolin

All Faculty Scholarship

This article argues that despite the benefits of ridding the criminal justice system of some uncertainty and ignorance with respect to mental health issues, the very close involvement of psychiatrists in the criminal justice system as practiced in the United States is not only illogical and bad policy, but also unethical from the viewpoint of medical ethics. Part II of this article will lay the groundwork for the argument by discussing the history of the insanity defense, and of science's involvement with criminal justice; while Part III, will look into the association of science and the administration of justice in …

Parallels In Predicting Dangerousness--What Price Security?, Vanessa Merton, Adele Bernhard

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

One question is: why should an employer have any duty to intervene, respond, or warn when an employee is deemed “dangerous”? What expertise in making these predictions can your average business manager bring to the table? As lawyers we tend never to look at law that is more than a week old. Similarly, scientists prefer not to rely on science that is more than a few months old. Yet, here is an article written almost 20 years ago when I was a young Associate for Law at the Hastings Center for a symposium honoring the great forensic psychiatrist Dr. Jonas …

Lawyers And Psychiatrists In The Court: Issues On Civil Commitment, Yorihiko Kumasaka, Raj K. Gupta

Maryland Law Review

No abstract provided.

Psychotherapeutic Treatment And Malpractice, David B. Saxe

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Irresistible Or Irresisted Impulse, Wladimir G. Eliasberg

Cleveland State Law Review

It is the purpose of this paper to show that the requirements made on psychiatry have not changed in the least since the application of the Durham Rule. It will be shown that now and in the future as before, the demonstration of the development and the dynamics of the mental processes is what the psychiatrist has to offer. Questions of guilt are not in his province. Now as before this latter remains the prerogative and obligation of the finders of fact, not of the experts.