Disagreements between court and psychiatrist on competency to stand trial

To determine the frequency and the nature of disagreements between the court and the forensic psychiatrist regarding a defendant's competence to stand trial, 390 consecutive admissions from the Yale-New Haven Psychiatric Court Clinic were reviewed. Six cases of clear-cut disagreements were found. It appears that when courts rule an individual competent and the psychiatrists rule incompetent, the psychiatrists have tended to overestimate the degree of function necessary to defend the legal charge.