Responsibilities of psychiatrists who provide expert opinion to courts and trubunals
The Special Committee for Professional Practice and Ethics was
asked by the Registrar of the Royal College of Psychiatrists in
2012 to develop new guidelines concerning the ethical duties
of psychiatrists giving evidence as experts in different kinds
of court. These new guidelines were intended in part to be a
response to the duties of expert witnesses that were being
formulated by the courts themselves in the context of review of
the costs of expert testimony. They were also aimed at further
acknowledging that giving evidence as a psychiatric expert is a
competency that cannot be assumed, but has to be acquired to
an accepted standard in order to meet revalidation requirements.
Some recent cases brought before the General Medical Council
(GMC) and the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS)
that have found psychiatrists' fitness to practise impaired
because of deficiencies in their work as expert witnesses also
suggest that psychiatrists may need more explicit guidance on
their duties as experts.
Source: Current Awareness Service for Health (CASH) - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news