Psychiatrists unwilling to write reports for court due to fee cap

A BARRISTER has complained that it is becoming increasingly difficult to get psychiatrists to write expert reports for the courts due to the fees being offered by the Legal Aid Board.

It is estimated that psychiatric reports are requested in as many as 20% of murder trials. If psychiatrists refuse to write reports, barristers are concerned that trials will be delayed.

Brendan Grehan SC yesterday told Judge Paul McDermott at the Central Criminal Court that the board offered €1,800 to a psychiatrist to offer his expert opinion on the mental health of a man accused of murder. Mr Grehan said the expert’s breakdown of fees ‘seems absolutely reasonable to me’ but the board had fixed their figure at €1,800 and were not prepared to go past it. He said it is an issue that ‘will have to be resolved one way or another’ and he told the court that it is becoming ‘increasingly difficult to get psychiatric experts to do cases’ due to the position adopted by the board.

It is understood that psychiatrists charge about €120 per hour to write a report, which would mean the cap placed on fees by the board would amount to about 15 hours of work. Psychiatrists routinely have to go through years of psychiatric assessments and reports when assessing a person on trial. When they come to court, psychiatrists will also be expected to be familiar with details in the book of evidence. It is also common for psychiatrists to interview the accused in person, sometimes several times.

Judge McDermott said that the case cannot advance until the issue is resolved. He adjourned the matter until the end of the month, saying that by then he expects the Legal Aid Board to state what the difficulty is.