At Samuel Maynard Centre you can be assured of our extensive experience over 20 years of serving the legal profession, offering compliant psychiatric expert opinions. We understand the intricacies of providing expert opinions for the courts and fully aware of the need for accuracy, relevancy, professionalism and cost effectiveness of the reports.
Please give as much information as possible about your requirements, including the relevant details of your client and the nature of report required. In your letter of instruction you can ask specific questions for the consultant to consider in his/her assessment. Please also let us know if you require us to arrange to receive a copy of your client’s medical notes from his/her GP/NHS Consultants. We will appoint the most appropriate consultant for the assessment of your client but if you require the services of a particular expert please mention this in your instruction. You can attach your letter of instruction with this form, if you wish. You will receive an email confirming the receipt of your instruction on arrival.
Initial enquiry
We are happy to discuss medical and psychiatric aspects of and requirements for a medical expert opinion for your client’s proceedings prior to your instruction. We are fully aware of the Ministry of Justice and the Legal Services Commission’s frameworks in providing expert and comply with these requirements completely. More Information>>
Instructions
We would normally require a formal instruction from you in order to assign a consultant for the assessment. Your instruction will need to include the following:
Your letter of instruction
This should normally contain your reference number, full names, date of birth and address of the client. We would also need telephone numbers and email address for the client if we are required to make the appointments directly. The letter should also refer to the fee agreement.
Specifics of your requirements from the Expert
This may be in form of questions to the consultant including relevant explanations, where necessary
Documents and other material
This would normally be the information you would like the consultant to consider prior or post assessment of your client (please copy documents. Do not send us the originals)
Medical notes
This includes a full medical history from the client’s GP including all previous reports and hospital examination/treatments.
A copy of client’s consent
We do not normally send copies of the report to the client or his/her GP. If you wish us to do so please mention this in your instructions including the copy of an appropriate consent from the client according to Access to Medical Reports Act 1982.
The Assessment
Appointments are normally made within two weeks of receiving the formal instruction. The assessment will be conducted by a consultant psychiatrist or a consultant clinical psychologist, where appropriate, either at our Centre in central London or the consultant’s other consulting rooms (usually within the Greater London area), at the client’s home or any government or private institution where the client resides.
In good practice, we would normally require to confirm the identity of the client before the assessment. We respectfully request that the client shows his/her passport or an equivalent form of ID to the consultant prior to the assessment (this will not be necessary if the client is being assessed in an institution).
The Report
The reports are prepared subject to Part 35 compliance. The reports are essentially prepared to assist the courts and as such follow the recommendations set by the Ministry Justice’s rules in providing Expert & Assessors evidence. The overriding duties of the expert in providing the reports are to the courts.
Unless instructed otherwise, the reports are sent both by attachment in an email and by First Class Post to the instructing parties within 14 days of the assessment, provided all medical notes and other documents have been received.
Any request for amendments to the report should be made in writing quoting the following
Our reference
Date of report
The consultant’s full name
Paragraph and page number of the amendment/s
A clear outline of the changes required
Specific reasons for each amendment
Please contact us for any information you may require concerning the assessment/s or the reports
Referrals
© 2012 Samuel Maynard -