Informed Consent Agreement
Study Title: Defense Attorney Practices and Perceptions Regarding Forensic Mental Health Evaluations
Please read this consent agreement carefully before you decide to participate in the study.
Purpose of the research study: Individuals with mental illness who come in contact with the criminal justice system may require forensic mental health evaluations, such as those addressing adjudicative competence or legal sanity. We intend to assess defense attorney practices in referring clients for these mental health evaluations.
What you will do in the study: You will complete a brief survey asking you to describe your: 1) typical practices when referring clients for forensic mental health evaluations, and 2) practices when dealing with clients charged only with misdemeanor/lower-level offenses who demonstrate mental health symptoms. All responses will be completely anonymous. You can discontinue the survey at any time.
Time required: The study will require about 5-8 minutes of your time.
Risks: There are no anticipated risks in this study.
Benefits: There are no direct benefits to you for participating in this research study. The study may help us understand attorney practices regarding forensic mental health evaluations and perceptions about the legal system’s ability to provide competence-related services.
Confidentiality: We will not ask for any information that could be used to identify you within the survey; all data will be received and reported in a completely anonymous manner. Identities could theoretically be deduced of some participants based on the demographic information they submit, but the researcher will not make an effort to do so and all data will be reported in the aggregate.
Voluntary participation: Your participation in the study is completely voluntary.
Right to withdraw from the study: You have the right to withdraw from the study at any time without penalty. However, because the data are not connected to your identity, we will be unable to remove provided data after complete submission and therefore cannot withdraw your responses from study inclusion.
Using data beyond this study: The data you provide in this study will be retained in a secure manner by the researcher for five years and then destroyed.
Payment: All participants will receive a coupon code waiving the fee for one online training provided by the Institute of Law, Psychiatry, and Public Policy, to be completed within a year. This code will be displayed at the end of study.
If you have questions about the study, contact:
Brett Gardner, Ph.D. & Daniel Murrie, Ph.D.
Institute of Law, Psychiatry, and Public Policy
University of Virginia School of Law, Charlottesville, VA 22903.
Telephone: (434) 297-4437
bgardner@virginia.edu
To obtain more information about the study, ask questions about the research procedures, express concerns about your participation, or report illness, injury or other problems, please contact:
Tonya R. Moon, Ph.D.
Chair, Institutional Review Board for the Social and Behavioral Sciences
One Morton Dr Suite 500
University of Virginia, P.O. Box 800392
Charlottesville, VA 22908-0392
Telephone: (434) 924-5999
Email: irbsbshelp@virginia.edu
Website: https://research.virginia.edu/irb-sbs
Website for Research Participants: https://research.virginia.edu/research-participants
UVA IRB-SBS #3655