Dr KEITH J.B. RIX - Consultant Forensic Psychiatrist

Breakdown of Medicolegal Work 2009

Total new instructions: 121

Civil, Chancery, Tribunals and miscellaneous - 83%

Criminal - 7%

Child/family - 8%

Coroners - 2%

Civil breakdown (meant to have been controlled by booking an equal number of claimant and defendant cases each calendar month. Again it has not quite worked but the imbalance is now in the opposite direction to 2008):

Claimants’ solicitors - 49%

Defendants’ solicitors/insurers - 46%

Single joint expert - 5%

Criminal breakdown*:

Defence - 67%

Prosecution - 0%

Court - 33%

*NB - based on small numbers

Court/tribunal/inquest appearances - 7

Conferences with counsel - 13

Experts’ memoranda of agreement - 19

Answers to questions - 6

“The long, uneasy flirtation between law and medicine is unlikely ever to end in harmonious matrimony with understanding and acceptance of the points of view of each side. At the best one might foresee some mariage de convenance but more likely, there will be a shotgun wedding forced on the parties by a public impatient both with legal argument and psychiatric differences in open court.” (F.A. Whitlock, Criminal Responsibility and Mental Illness, London, Butterworths 1963)