Chapter 2: An Overview of the Legal System PDF

## Chapter 2: An Overview of the Legal System ### Sources of Law, the Court System, and the Adjudicative Process ### 2.01. Introduction - The forensic specialist works in a world defined largely by "the law." - The law regulates forensic practice through administrative licensing agencies, legal r...

## Chapter 2: An Overview of the Legal System ### Sources of Law, the Court System, and the Adjudicative Process ### 2.01. Introduction - The forensic specialist works in a world defined largely by "the law." - The law regulates forensic practice through administrative licensing agencies, legal rules governing malpractice and confidentiality, and constitutional principles limiting evaluation procedures. - Legal officials (judges, attorneys, probation officers, and clerks) initiate forensic referrals, and sheriffs and other law enforcement officers transport clients to and from hospital and jail. - Also, legal factfinders (judges and juries) are the ultimate arbiters of those cases evaluated by the forensic specialist. - Most importantly, the law establishes the guidelines that define the **scope of forensic evaluation**. * Chapters 6-17 describe this law in detail. - It's important to understand where the law comes from, when it is applied, and by whom. * The "law" is not derived from a single, readily accessible, or static source. - To function competently, the forensic specialist must have a basic knowledge of: * The **sources of law**. * The **institutions that shape the law**. * The **various points in the legal process at which it can be applied**. * The **types of individuals who apply the law**. - **This chapter is devoted to acquiring this basic knowledge**. #### Problem 2.1 Through the sources discussed in this chapter, find the law that applies in your state on the following topics: 1. The insanity defense 2. The extent to which mental illness is a mitigating factor in sentencing proceedings 3. The extent to which mental injury is compensable under workers' compensation law 4. The scope of the psychotherapist-patient privilege 5. Eligibility for Social Security 6. The standard for competence to proceed 7. The point at which an arrested person must be taken before a judge 8. The point at which the defendant in a civil case can require a mental examination of the plaintiff. In which areas is the law federal in origin, and in which is it generated by the state? In which areas is there both federal law and state law, and when does each apply? In which areas is the source of law constitutional? Statutory? Regulatory? In which areas is the source of law judicial, either in origin or as a matter of interpreting constitutional, statutory, or regulatory law? ### 2.02 Sources of Law - Tradition has it that the legislature "makes" the law, the executive branch enforces the law, and the judicial branch interprets the law. - In fact, each branch of government makes law, and each interprets the law. - Moreover, each branch is subject to law, and in the United States system the ultimate source of law is the **United States Constitution**. - Both the federal and state systems have legislative, executive, and judicial arms. #### (a) Federal-State Relations - The United States is a "federation" of states. - Under a federal system, each state retains its own government and its own system of laws, but the states also collectively cede certain powers to the central government. - The **United States Constitution is the document that sets out the various powers held by the federal government on the one hand and the state governments on the other**. * For instance, it states that the power to regulate interstate commerce and to provide for the national defense rests exclusively in the hands of the federal government. * The Tenth Amendment to the Constitution reserves to the states those "powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited to them." - The federal government's authority under these constitutional provisions was originally narrowly construed. * From the 1930s through the mid-1990s, Congress gradually came to enjoy virtually unlimited discretion to pass laws affecting any activity that involved either the "public welfare" or "interstate commerce." * Although the United States Supreme Court has since imposed some limits on Congressional authority, the federal government still enjoys immense legislative power. - Under its **public welfare authority**, the federal government has had a dramatic impact on the provision of **mental health (and general health) services** in the United States: * It has set institutional and staffing standards under which Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement is available to mental health providers. * It has attempted to stimulate the growth of community mental health services through the Community Mental Health Centers Act. * It has significantly advanced the habilitation opportunities of people with developmental disabilities through the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. * It has outlawed discrimination on the basis of disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act. - The federal laws most likely to raise forensic evaluation issues fall into four categories: 1. **Federal criminal law**, which includes offenses in which the victim was a federal official, violations of federal civil rights, offenses involving federal property, and interstate crimes (such as mail fraud, robbery of federally insured banks, and narcotics violations involving interstate and international transactions) 2. **The Social Security and other entitlement laws**, which call for certain types of disability determinations. 3. **The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act**, which requires treatment and habilitation plans for children with disabilities. 4. **Antidsicrimination laws**, most prominently the Americans with Disabilities Act, which can require evaluation of a person's competence to work under certain conditions. ##### Most other substantive areas that might result in forensic evaluations are governed primarily by state law: - When crimes other than those federal offenses noted above are committed, state law is the basis for criminal prosecution. - State law not only defines the relevant violations in such cases, it also determines the availability and scope of defenses such as the insanity defense and the appropriate punishment (although federal constitutional law may limit the states' sentencing options at the margin, as it has in the death penalty context). - State law controls most civil disputes as well, such as: * Civil commitment * Guardianship * Wills * “Torts” (or civil wrongs) such as personal injury, malpractice, and breach-of-confidentiality claims * Workers' compensation * Juvenile delinquency * Domestic matters such as divorce and custody * Licensing of mental health professionals - The evaluator and lawyer must determine the legal rules of the particular state in which a case is located. ##### There are some instances in which federal and state laws overlap: - Conduct can often lead to both state and federal prosecutions. * For example, an armed robbery of a federally insured bank in Missouri could be punishable under Missouri's armed robbery statute and federal law as well. - The state and federal governments are seen as separate "sovereigns," both may prosecute the same robbery without fear of violating the Double Jeopardy Clause of the Constitution (which prohibits double punishment for the same offense). - The preemption doctrine is designed to promote a unified approach to "federal" problems and may exclude state law. * As a result, a federal law that deals with a preempted issue will supersede all state laws on the subject. - The Department of Health and Human Services regulations governing confidentiality in substance abuse treatment programs have been found to preempt the area; state statutes in conflict with these regulations must give way. #### (b) Constitutions - The United States has a "constitutional" form of government, meaning that the United States Constitution is the ultimate legal authority. - All other laws, whether legislative, executive, or judicial in origin, must be consistent with it, as must be the actions of all governmental officials. * In other words these rules and actions must be "constitutional." - The Constitution places limits on what state (as well as federal) law can provide. ##### Provisions of the United States Constitution that affect forensic practice most significantly are the Fifth, Sixth, and Fourteenth Amendments: - The Fifth Amendment establishes the "privilege against self-incrimination," and the Sixth Amendment provides each person accused of crime with the "right to counsel"; * The implications of these concepts for forensic evaluation are discussed in Chapter 4. - The Fourteenth Amendment guarantees that no state shall deprive any citizen of the United States of life, liberty, or property without "due process of law," and that no state shall deny an individual "equal protection" of the laws. - Relying on these provisions, principally the due process clause, the courts have issued rulings that have significantly affected the standards for: * Competence to proceed * Other competencies in the criminal process * The admissibility of clinical testimony in criminal trials on issues other than insanity * The procedures to be followed in capital sentencing proceedings * The criteria and procedures for civil and criminal commitments * The scope of the right to refuse treatment ##### Within the parameters set by the United States Constitution, the federal and state branches of government may devise legal rules: - Officials in a particular state are further limited in their actions by the constitution of that state, although in practice the provisions of most state constitutions are similar to those in the federal Constitution. #### (c) Statutes and Regulations - As noted earlier, there are important parallels in the organization of the federal government and the various state governments. - Each has a legislative branch (Congress at the federal level; "general assemblies," "houses of delegates," etc., at the state level), an executive branch (the President and the federal departments in the federal system; the governor and state agencies in the state system), and a judicial branch. ##### The laws that legislatures pass are called “statutes” and are “codified,” or collected, into “codes,” which are organized by subject: - In the federal system, for instance, Title 18 is the section of the United States Code that deals with federal crimes. - State codes may also be organized by titles or by chapters, sections, or some other nomenclature, but each represents the product of the state legislature's deliberations. ##### As might well be imagined, legislatures often are unable to treat by statute all situations or circumstances they want to address: - They have increasingly delegated rulemaking authority to government agencies, which are units of the executive branch. - In the federal system, for instance, Congress enacted the Americans with Disabilities Act prohibiting in broad terms discrimination on the basis of mental disability, but left to a variety of federal agencies (the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the United States Department of Justice, among others) the task of creating more detailed rules that those subject to the statute must follow. - Similarly, a state legislature might direct its Department of Mental Health to devise guidelines for the provision of forensic evaluation services. ##### This administrative law, usually promulgated in the form of "regulations" and also found in “codes," is increasingly enforced in the first instance through administrative hearing boards: - Decisions of these boards are usually subject to review by the courts. #### (d) The Judiciary - Despite the advent of administrative hearing boards, the primary locus for interpreting and applying legal principles in both the federal and state systems remains the judicial system (indeed, as just noted, most administrative findings are appealable to a court). - These judicial decisions are the results of deliberation in individual cases that raise an issue concerning a particular legal principle. - The holding and reasoning of the courts in these cases are recorded in Reports or Reporters, which are organized according to the type and level of court. ##### Thus, for instance, for the federal court system, United States Reports and the Supreme Court Reporters contain opinions of the United States Supreme Court: - The Federal Reporters contain the decisions of the federal circuit courts of appeals; and the Federal Supplement contains opinions of the federal district courts.