Civil Competency Restoration: Initial Findings From Psychological-Based Civil Competency Evaluations

摘要

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to examine civil competency restoration examinations conducted by licensed psychologists. The restoration court hearing occurs after an individual previously adjudicated incompetent petitions the court for restoration. In particular, we were interested in how often restoration bids occur, the characteristics of those seeking restoration, and if individuals restored differ from those not restored to competency. Methods: Court files were obtained for requests for incompetency examinations from 2002 to 2018 in one urban county in North Carolina. Of these examinations, we focused on examinations for competency restoration versus the incompetency request. Court files containing the final legal opinion (restored or not restored) were linked with clinical files containing demographic information, as well as cognitive and functional testing. The latter were the Mini-Mental State Examination and Managing Money and Health and Safety subtests of the Independent Living Scales. Results: A total of 15% of all court-ordered psychological evaluations for incompetency issues were for competency restoration. Of these individuals, 35% were restored to competency. The only statistically significant differences between those restored versus those not restored to competency was that the former group were more like to be women and were more educated. There were no cognitive or functional differences between groups. Conclusions: Overall, requests for competency restoration are not common and, for the most part, those restored and those not restored are quite similar. This article provides relevant background information on competency restoration, preliminary findings on these examinations, and ideas for future research.