Evaluating the Case, Evaluating the Cost: Criteria for Constructing the Defense Strategy of Persons Suffering from Mental Illness

Abstract

This arlicle examines the challenges and problems faced by attorneys defending, in criminal courls, clients suffering from mental health problems, and who are generally socially and economically fragile. The analysis is based on 14 in-depth intelViews with defense attorneys who practice criminal law at the Montreal Municipal Courl. Through. their descriptions, this arlicle will explore how attorneys determine their strategies and the elements that contribute to their choices when they represent persons with mental health problems in courl. Three factors appear determinant in this process: the assessment of the case (assessment of the client’s wishes, assessment of the client), the evaluation of the costs and benefits from the client’s perspective, and the evaluation of the costs and benefits from the lawyers’s perspective. The central concept of best interest of the client is shown in the complex and multidimensional.

Keywords::

• Criminal courts
• Defense attorneys
• Mental illness
• Mentally disordered offenders
• Legal Aid