Today, we are talking about mitigation pleas and specifically psychiatric report. What exactly is a psychiatric report? What does it contain? How is it helpful to mention it in your mitigation plea?
One of the things that you can talk about and have in your mitigation plea to show to the court is a psychiatric report.
What exactly is a psychiatric report?
It’s a report that is prepared by a medical expert, a psychiatrist and this can be a psychiatrist in private practice or government service. The purpose of this report is to certify whether you were suffering from a psychiatric condition at the time or period of the offence.
You can also talk about some of the symptoms of such an illness or condition. But most importantly, the report should whether the condition or the symptoms caused or contributed to you acting in the way that led to the offence being committed.
The report can also talk about the treatment that you are receiving and what it involves and how soon you are likely to recover from this.
These are important considerations for the court to know. Because ultimately, the type and amount of the punishments that the court imposes, should have some regard, to this condition, if you have it.
To summarise, here are the two things that you should remember about the psychiatric report:
- First, the psychiatric and mental health of a person who’s been sentenced is always important for the court to know
- Secondly, the report must contain some confirmation or some certification of a medical or psychiatric condition and say whether this condition and its symptoms was linked to the offence. In the sense that it either caused or contributed to the conduct that led to the offence being committed.