What's happening
This bill shifts responsibility for paying psychiatric examination costs for defendants from the county to the state.
Why it matters
Shifts financial burden from local to state level. By making the state responsible for these psychiatric examination costs, counties could see significant budget relief, potentially freeing up resources for other local needs or services.
May improve access to psychiatric assessments. State funding could reduce delays or disparities in accessing qualified examiners—especially in counties with limited local resources—by ensuring costs are covered regardless of county wealth.
Could impact state budget planning and resource allocation. The state will now need to budget for these expenses, which could be substantial and may prompt broader discussions about mental health funding and criminal justice priorities.
Potential to address inequities across counties. This change could help standardize the quality and timeliness of mental fitness evaluations for defendants statewide, reducing variation based on where a case is tried.
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Who cares
County governments
The bill would shift court-approved psychiatric examination fees, examiner travel expenses and defendants’ examination-related transport and maintenance costs from the county trying the defendant to the state.
New York State fiscal officials
The state would become responsible for these costs for expenses incurred on or after the bill’s immediate effective date.
Psychiatric examiners
The state would replace counties as the payer of court-approved fees and travel expenses, while existing fee limits and restrictions for state employees would remain unchanged.
Headline styles
State Pays for Psych Exams
Plain English, a few words. Used as the page title.
Sponsors
No co-sponsors yet.
History
- Referred to codes
- Referred to codes
Companion bill
The same bill in the other chamber. A bill becomes law when one version passes both houses and the governor signs it, so either number can carry it.
State Pays Mental Exam Costs
In Senate Committee · Codes · Sponsor Robert Ortt
Full text
1 pageUnderlined is new[Struck] is removedOfficial text on nysenate.gov ↗
STATE OF NEW YORK
7694
2017-2018 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
May 9, 2017
Introduced by M. of A. GUNTHER -- read once and referred to the Committee on Codes
AN ACT to amend the criminal procedure law, in relation to payment of certain costs associated with the psychiatric examination of defendants to determine mental fitness
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:
Section 1. Subdivision 7 of section 730.20 of the criminal procedure law, as amended by chapter 692 of the laws of 1972, is amended to read as follows:
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] state.
§ 2. This act shall take effect immediately and shall apply to expenses occurring on and after such date.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[ ] is old law to be omitted.
LBD03742-01-7
Reflowed for reading: line numbers and page breaks removed. Cite the official text.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.