New York Laws
Article 730 - Mental Disease or Defect Excluding Fitness to Proceed
730.20 - Fitness to Proceed; Generally.

1. The appropriate director to whom a criminal court issues an order
of examination must be determined in accordance with rules jointly
adopted by the judicial conference and the commissioner. Upon receipt
of an examination order, the director must designate two qualified
psychiatric examiners, of whom he may be one, to examine the defendant
to determine if he is an incapacitated person. In conducting their
examination, the psychiatric examiners may employ any method which is
accepted by the medical profession for the examination of persons
alleged to be mentally ill or mentally defective. The court may
authorize a psychiatrist or psychologist retained by the defendant to be
present at such examination.

2. When the defendant is not in custody at the time a court issues an
order of examination, because he was theretofore released on bail or on
his own recognizance, the court may direct that the examination be
conducted on an out-patient basis, and at such time and place as the
director shall designate. If, however, the director informs the court
that hospital confinement of the defendant is necessary for an effective
examination, the court may direct that the defendant be confined in a
hospital designated by the director until the examination is completed.

3. When the defendant is in custody at the time a court issues an
order of examination, the examination must be conducted at the place
where the defendant is being held in custody. If, however, the director
determines that hospital confinement of the defendant is necessary for
an effective examination, the sheriff must deliver the defendant to a
hospital designated by the director and hold him in custody therein,
under sufficient guard, until the examination is completed.

4. Hospital confinement under subdivisions two and three shall be for
a period not exceeding thirty days, except that, upon application of the
director, the court may authorize confinement for an additional period
not exceeding thirty days if it is satisfied that a longer period is
necessary to complete the examination. During the period of hospital
confinement, the physician in charge of the hospital may administer or
cause to be administered to the defendant such emergency psychiatric,
medical or other therapeutic treatment as in his judgment should be
administered.

5. Each psychiatric examiner, after he has completed his examination
of the defendant, must promptly prepare an examination report and submit
it to the director. If the psychiatric examiners are not unanimous in
their opinion as to whether the defendant is or is not an incapacitated
person, the director must designate another qualified psychiatric
examiner to examine the defendant to determine if he is an incapacitated
person. Upon receipt of the examination reports, the director must
submit them to the court that issued the order of examination. The
court must furnish a copy of the reports to counsel for the defendant
and to the district attorney.

6. When a defendant is subjected to examination pursuant to an order
issued by a criminal court in accordance with this article, any
statement made by him for the purpose of the examination or treatment
shall be inadmissible in evidence against him in any criminal action on
any issue other than that of his mental condition, but such statement is
admissible upon that issue whether or not it would otherwise be deemed a
privileged communication.

7. A psychiatric examiner is entitled to his reasonable traveling
expenses, a fee of fifty dollars for each examination of a defendant and
a fee of fifty dollars for each appearance at a court hearing or trial
but not exceeding two hundred dollars in fees for examination and
testimony in any one case; except that if such psychiatric examiner be

an employee of the state of New York he shall be entitled only to
reasonable traveling expenses, unless such psychiatric examiner makes
the examination or appears at a court hearing or trial outside his hours
of state employment in a county in which the director of community
mental health services certifies to the fiscal officer thereof that
there is a shortage of qualified psychiatrists available to conduct
examinations under the criminal procedure law in such county, in which
event he shall be entitled to the foregoing fees and reasonable
traveling expenses. Such fees and traveling expenses and the costs of
sending a defendant to another place of detention or to a hospital for
examination, of his maintenance therein and of returning him shall, when
approved by the court, be a charge of the county in which the defendant
is being tried.