Sign Up to Access the Registry

Texas Registry of Forensic Experts for Competency, Sanity and Capacity Determinations in Adult and Juvenile Proceedings

At long last Capacity FOR JUSTICE (C4J) invites the legal and mental health communities and interested others to visit Capacity FOR JUSTICE.org and explore a Texas Registry of Forensic Experts for Competency, Sanity and Capacity Determinations in Adult and Juvenile Proceedings. The Registry is provided as a public service by Capacity FOR JUSTICE, a Texas non-profit corporation (C4J) with financial assistance supporting the creation of the Registry from the Texas Bar Foundation.

The Registry is free for both users and registrants. The primary goal is to provide a source for the Texas courts, judges, lawyers and interested others in locating an expert to evaluate a defendant or juvenile for competency/fitness to proceed to trial and/or sanity/responsibility for conduct.

The statutory qualifications for juvenile and criminal forensic expert witnesses are stated in Texas Code of Criminal Procedure, art. 46B.022 "Incompetency to Stand Trial" and 46C.101 "Insanity Defense" and Texas Family Code, art. 51.20, "Physical or Mental Examination", art. 55.31, "Unfitness to Proceed Determination"; "Examination" and art. 55.51 "Lack of Responsibility for Conduct Determination"; "Examination." The Texas Legislative Council has issued a letter clarifying the application of these statutes. The language of the relevant statutes and a copy of the clarifying opinion are posted on the website for review by users of the Registry.

Information from the C4J forensic expert training database maintained since the inception of those training programs in 2001 is included in the Registry. In 2004, C4J conducted a statewide survey of participants in those trainings to gather information for the Registry database and it has also received records of attendance in accredited 24 hour expert witness workshops presented by the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio and North Texas State Hospital in Vernon and Wichita Falls conducted in 2003 for inclusion in the Registry database. Records for 584 trained participants have been reviewed in compiling the database. Of those 584 records, 215 are included in the Registry. Additional training credits are listed based on documentation provided by the listed participants. C4J plans to periodically update information in the Registry as it is provided by Registry participants. The Registry utilizes database technology to enable users to conduct searches and perform queries to locate professionals by certain areas of special expertise or geographic location.

How to Sign Up to Access the Registry

Please fill in the information in the form below in order to be able to search the registry. If you are a mental health professional, and you would like to be included in the registry as an expert, you must first register to access the system. After registering and logging in, just click on the “Your Profile” tab. Click on the button that says “Include in Registry”. You will be required to e-mail proof of current Texas licensing and copies of forensic evaluation continuing education certificates of credits earned up to 24 hours before you will be considered for inclusion in the Registry.