Cooperation between experts in fitness proceedings

The handling of the mentally ill offender involves the law as well as psychiatry and it is, therefore, essential that a good relationship exists between the jurist and the psychiatrist. The answering of questions of law by the courts needs the assistance and cooperation of mental health experts. This cooperation between the law and mental health professions is inevitable and necessary because the court is not an expert in the field of psychiatry. The duty of the psychiatric expert is to furnish the judge with necessary scientific criteria for testing the accuracy of the conclusions, so as to enable the court to form its own independent judgment by the application of these criteria to the facts proved in evidence.