Incompetency
Author | Jeffrey Lehman, Shirelle Phelps |
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The lack of ability, knowledge, legal qualification, or fitness to discharge a required duty or professional obligation.
The term incompetency has several meanings in the law. When it is used to describe the mental condition of a person subject to legal proceedings, it means the person is neither able to comprehend the nature and consequences of the proceedings nor adequately able to help an attorney with his defense. When it is used to describe the legal qualification of a person, it means the person does not have the legal capacity to enter a contract. When it is employed to describe a professional duty or obligation, it means that the person has demonstrated a lack of ability to perform professional functions.
A person who is diagnosed as being mentally ill, senile, or suffering from some other debility that prevents them from managing his own affairs may be declared mentally incompetent by a court of law. When a person is judged to be incompetent, a guardian is appointed to handle the person's property and personal affairs.
The legal procedure for declaring a person incompetent consists of three steps: (1) a motion for a competency hearing, (2) a psychiatric or psychological evaluation, and (3) a competency hearing. Probate courts usually handle competency proceedings, which guarantee the allegedly incompetent person DUE PROCESS OF LAW.
In CRIMINAL LAW a defendant's mental competency may be questioned out of concern for the defendant's welfare or for strategic legal reasons. The defense may request a competency hearing so that it can gather information to use in PLEA BARGAINING, to mitigate a sentence, or to prepare for a potential INSANITY DEFENSE. The prosecution may raise the issue as a preventive
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measure or to detain the defendant so that a weak case can be built into a stronger one.
A motion for a competency hearing must be made before sentencing takes place. In federal court a motion for a hearing will be granted "if there is a reasonable cause to believe that the defendant may be suffering from a mental disease or defect rendering him mentally incompetent" (18 U.S.C.A. § 4241 (a)). A psychiatric or psychological evaluation is then conducted, and a hearing is held on the matter. If the court finds that the defendant is incompetent, the defendant will be hospitalized for a reasonable period...
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