Competency exam

[lbb87]

What is the name of your state? Virginia


What is the legal definition of sanity and competency?

Is there certain criteria a person must meet to be found competent or incompetent? If so, does anyone know what the criteria is?

Also, if a person is found to be sane but incompetent and is a homeowner, is their house/property in jeopardy of being taken away from them?

 

[Kane]

In my state, you have to be able to understand the nature of the proceedings against you (who the judge is, what a jury does, what the charges are), and you have to be able to communicate effectively with your attorney, in order to be competent.

Competency determines whether a person can be tried. A person who is incompentent can't be tried, until he becomes competent.

Sanity has to do with your state of mind at the time you committed the crime. In my state, the standard is whether or not you can tell the difference between right and wrong. It's a harder standard than what it sounds like. Here in Texas, a woman killed her children, called the police, and waited for them to come - because God told her to. The jury who heard her case decided she was sane.

I don't know what either of those has to do with your house, if anything. However, it's hard to meet your mortgage payments if you're in jail, or in a mental hospital.

The laws vary from one state to another, and the laws in VA may be different.

 

[gawm]

What is the name of your state? Virginia


What is the legal definition of sanity and competency?

Is there certain criteria a person must meet to be found competent or incompetent? If so, does anyone know what the criteria is?

Also, if a person is found to be sane but incompetent and is a homeowner, is their house/property in jeopardy of being taken away from them?

Is somebody trying to get power of attorney over you claiming that you are incompetent?

 

[lbb87]

Is somebody trying to get power of attorney over you claiming that you are incompetent?

My father has had legal problems with the city/county for the past few years. He and his doctors have been claiming all along that his mental illness prevents him from following the law. The county didn't care and wouldn't listen. Recently, criminal charges have been filed so his lawyer has asked for a competency exam. Now the county wants him to have the exam. They think it's a good idea.

Why the sudden change in attitude from the county? It's been suspected from the beginning that they keep hassling my father because they want his property. There was even a mention of it several years ago from the county. So we're wondering if my father is found to be incompetent, will the county use that to try to take away the property? The property/house is supposed to be in my mother's name as well but there is a problem with the deed (or something) and it might only be in my father's name. However, my parents had the house refinanced last year and my mother's name was on that paperwork.

Perhaps I should repost this question in the real estate forum.

 

[CalifAtty-18]

What is the name of your state? Virginia


What is the legal definition of sanity and competency?

My response:

When you take your index finger, and move it swiftly up and down on your lips, while humming, and can't stop yourself, then you know you're insane and incompetent. Psychiatrists use this technique all the time.

IAAL

 

[lbb87]

My father has a brain injury which has caused or triggered obsessive compulsive disorder, hoarding, depression, and he is supposedly bipolar.

His behavior since the brain injury shows me that he is not capable of understanding many things. I have explained to him that he is breaking the law and I told him what the county law is regarding the law he has broken. He insists that he is not breaking the law and then explains why. But both my mother and I have read the county laws and agree that my father has broken them.

Basically, my feeling is that sometimes my father gets certain ideas and thoughts stuck in his head that are incorrect. But trying to tell or prove to him that they are incorrect has no affects. He believes what he wants to believe. For example, if he were to believe that all monkeys are really dogs, then you could have all the proof in the world that he is wrong and he still won't believe you because he knows he is right.

Sometimes he seems to think he is above the law. There have been several times when he's violated traffic laws and when I suggested he shouldn't do whatever it was that he was doing, he said he can do it because he's special. Then when he gets in trouble for it, he complains about it like he did nothing wrong.

But there are times when he acts normal. Sometimes he comes up with brilliant ideas or strategies most people would've never have thought of. Or sometimes he's like a fountain of knowledge and it amazes me that he actually knows that stuff when most people don't.

Sometimes it's like living with someone with split personalities. Sometimes he's very intelligent, but mostly he's dumber than dirt (sorry to have to say that).

His regular psychiatrist said that if asked, he will say that my father is competent. I don't believe he is. The doctor doesn't know what I know. The doctor doesn't see the truth because he has to believe everything my father says. If you believe everything he says, then it's like having a curtain pulled over your eyes.

I don't know what I should do. I think my father needs to be found incompetent. Not because it will keep him out of jail, but because I think it will change him personally, for the better. It's hard to explain that but I definitely think it would help him. But I just want the truth to be told. I want the ruling to be accurate and not skewed by a doctor who doesn't know the truth.