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Adversarial System Disadvantages

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Advantages and Disadvantages of Adversarial System and Court-Appointed Experts Two systems can be used to assess the mental states of the accused and which can affect the jury’s or judge’s assessment of incapacity, dangerousness, competence to stand trial, and insanity. The first is the adversarial system, and the second, court-appointed experts. The adversarial system is often described as a contest between two lawyers (Dammer & Albanese, 2014, p. 127)who will use their own experts to support their arguments and serve the best interests of their clients. On the contrary, court-appointed experts will not provide testimonies for the benefit of any party. According to Rule 706 (a), on a party’s motion or the court’s, the court can …show more content…

When the court itself appoints an expert, the fact finder may find him/her almost infallible and may neglect the consideration of other factors when finding out the truth (McCahey, & Proman, 2011). In reality, mental health professionals should be aware and inform the court that they cannot provide "definite answers" especially to the question, "Did the defendant, at the time of the crime, appreciate right from wrong"? (Meyer & Weaver, 2006, Ch. 2). Thinking that these experts can offer absolute answers that determine incapacity or insanity "may be misleading, probably unethical, and downright untruthful" (Meyer & Weaver, 2006, Ch. 2). Court-appointed experts may have an undue influence and adversely affect the decision-making of fact …show more content…

The conditions that may warrant court-appointed experts are in “criminal cases where the determination of intent turns on forensic and psychological evidentiary findings, in toxic tort litigation, in complex litigation cases, and in child placement cases” (Lee, 1988, p. 488). In a way, he is saying that court-appointed experts are better than party-appointed experts in certain

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