The Florida Senate

916.115  Appointment of experts.--

(1)(a)  Annually, the department shall provide the courts with a list of mental health professionals who have completed approved training as experts.

(b)  The court may appoint no more than three nor fewer than two experts to determine issues of the mental condition of a defendant in a criminal case, including the issues of competency to proceed, insanity, and involuntary hospitalization or placement. The panel of experts may evaluate the defendant in jail or in another appropriate local facility.

(c)  To the extent possible, the appointed experts shall have completed forensic evaluator training approved by the department and be either a psychiatrist, licensed psychologist, or physician.

(2)  Expert witnesses appointed by the court to evaluate the mental condition of a defendant in a criminal case shall be allowed reasonable fees for services rendered as evaluators of competence or sanity and as witnesses, which shall be paid by the county in which the indictment was found or the information or affidavit was filed. State employees shall be paid expenses pursuant to s. 112.061 The fees shall be taxed as costs in the case. In order for the experts to be paid for the services rendered, the reports and testimony must explicitly address each of the factors and follow the procedures set out in this chapter and in the Florida Rules of Criminal Procedure.

History.--s. 1, ch. 80-75; s. 5, ch. 82-176; s. 5, ch. 83-274; s. 25, ch. 84-285; s. 34, ch. 85-167; s. 18, ch. 94-154; s. 1528, ch. 97-102; s. 14, ch. 98-92.

Note.--Former s. 916.11.