Criminal Defense Attorneys California – Mental Health

Under California law it is unconstitutional to force anyone who is mentally incompetent to stand trial.

Criminal defendants must be able to comprehend the nature of the charges against them and to assist in their own defense.

Criminal defendants with mental disabilities also have a right to representation by criminal defense attorneys in the California court of law.

The Rosenfeld Law Firm has experienced criminal defense attorneys. Our mental health attorney specializes in the representation of those accused of a criminal offense in California that have mental disabilities.

Contact Our Sacramento Mental Health Attorney

Determining Mental Health

When criminal defense attorneys have reason to question their client's competency, he or she will ask the judge to order a psychiatric evaluation.

A defendant who is found not competent may be committed to a psychiatric facility for treatment, where he or she will stay until he or she is competent to stand trial. 

If the person is not restored to competency after three years, other legal proceedings are held whereby the person may be committed to a state hospital, operated by the California Department of Mental Health, for long-term treatment.

Rosenfeld’s criminal defense attorneys of Sacramento California have also defended many individuals who were found by psychiatrists to be legally insane at the time the crime was committed.

Mental Health and the Law

Being incompetent to stand trial differs from being insane at the time of the offense. 
Insanity is a defense to certain crimes that requires proof of intent.

California’s mental health law employs the so-called M’Naghten standard which provides: 

"Every man is to be presumed to be sane, and...that to establish a defense on the ground of insanity, it must be clearly proved that, at the time of the committing of the act, the party accused was laboring under such a defect of reason, from disease of mind, and not to know the nature and quality of the act he was doing; or if he did know it, that he did not know he was doing what was wrong."

The test to determine if a defendant can distinguish right from wrong is based on the idea that the defendant must know the difference in order to be convicted of a crime. 

The burden of proof is on the mental health attorney for the defendant to show, through expert testimony that the defendant was legally insane at the time they committed the criminal offense.

Mental Health Attorney Ken Rosenfeld

The mandate of our criminal defense attorneys is to defend California clients with mental health issues.

The goal of our mental health attorney is not only to help clients avoid prison terms but to also ensure that the client receives the appropriate and necessary mental health treatment. Our mental health attorney has extensive training in the psychological needs of clients with mental health issues.

The other areas of practice handled by California’s criminal defense attorneys at Sacramento’s Rosenfeld Law Firm include prison law, juvenile defense, DUI defense, appellate law, criminal defense and federal criminal defense.

Ask our California criminal defense attorneys about mental health and law enforcement or to speak with a mental health attorney Ken Rosenfeld call 916-447-2070 or contact The Rosenfeld Law Firm.