Independent experts serve a vital role in how the human rights of patients are protected in mental health law. This article investigates the contribution of court-appointed psychiatrists (APs) in civil commitment court hearings. Analysis is based on 12 court hearings that were audiotaped. Supplementary informal interviews with participants were also conducted. Data were analysed through a combi...

Previous studies have scrutinized the decision-making process of physicians involved in the civil commitment of mentally ill persons, but few have examined the process used by probate judges when deciding to issue orders of detention and when conducting commitment hearings. This study consisted of a written survey sent to all probate court judges (n = 68) in South Carolina. Factors examined in ...

While video technology has long been a feature of courtrooms, during the pandemic, courts underwent seismic shift towards virtual hearings. Physical courtrooms shut their doors and hearings were moved to space. This transformation was fast, radical, likely permanently alter landscape justice. In this article, we review strategies in Australia United Kingdom (UK) adopted response pandemic discus...

Statutory public hearings for urban development proposals are among the oldest venues participation in planning U.S., Canada, and many other jurisdictions, most common resident planning. A number of scholars discuss their work. However, such depictions often contradictory do not test nor examine whether allow residents to influence decisions. This paper tests efficacy statutory examines institu...

Article: There is little question that today’s society is a litigious one, and few professions can escape the realities of such. Although there is no mandate for national data collection on special education due process hearings (Ahearn, 2002), Chambers, Harr, and Dhanani (2003) estimate that more than 9,000 requests for dispute resolution are made per year. The hearings that result from unreso...

The hydraulic design of the Yuansantze Flood Diversion Works (YFDW) project was considerably important for flood mitigation in Taiwan, and positive outcomes of the public hearings played a major role in the success of the project. In the beginning of the project, communication between decision makers, engineers and the public was tenuous due to excess engineering details and a lack of integrate...