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Psychological/Psychiatric
Examiner Services Program

The State Court Administrator’s (SCA) Psychological/Psychiatric Examiner Services Program (Program) maintains a Roster of  Examiners to provide district courts with access to qualified psychiatric or psychological examiners for appointment in civil commitment proceedings and criminal competency as outlined in Minnesota Statute sections 611.40-59 and Minn. R. Crim. P. Rule 20. Examiners listed on the Roster are licensed physicians or psychologists, meet the definition of a qualified examiner according to Minn. Stat. 253B.02 Subd.7, and agree to comply with SCA Psychological/Psychiatric Examiner Services Policies. The Psych Examiner Services Program staff provide technical support for statewide policies and the Roster of Examiners.
Communications Archive

Program Overview

The Minnesota Judicial Branch is responsible for the cost of psychological or psychiatric examinations in civil commitment and criminal competency proceedings as mandated in Minn. Stat. § 480.182.
 
Civil commitment is a legal process that allows the state to order a proposed patient into treatment even if the person objects. Because the process drastically impacts a person’s rights, it is only used in narrowly defined circumstances. Minnesota’s procedures for civil commitment are contained in chapter 253B of Minnesota’s Statutes. As part of the commitment process, an examiner must be appointed by the court. The proposed patient may also request a second examiner. The examiner submits a report to the court that offers an opinion whether civil commitment of the proposed patient is appropriate.

Pursuant to Minnesota Statute sections 611.40-59 and Minn. R. Crim. P. Rule 20, competency evaluations occur in criminal cases when there is a belief that a defendant may not be competent to proceed with the case or was not responsible at the time of the alleged offense because of mental illness or developmental disability.
 

Minn. Stat. 253B.02 Subd.7 defines a qualified examiner as:

“knowledgeable, trained, and practicing in the diagnosis and assessment or in the treatment of the alleged impairment, and who is; (1) a licensed physician; (2) a licensed psychologist who has a doctoral degree in psychology or who became a licensed consulting psychologist before July 2, 1975 …”.

Psychologists or psychiatrists who meet the qualifications and are interested in being listed on the Roster of Qualified Examiners, should  send an email via our contact form listing:

  • examiner’s name,
  • address,
  • phone number,
  • email,
  • license number, and
  • professional degree credentials.

Examiner Resource Application (ERA)

In March 2020, the Minnesota Judicial Branch launched a new examiner invoicing tool. The Examiner Resource Application (ERA) is the mandatory invoicing tool for all examiners and institutions providing psychological and psychiatric evaluation services for civil commitment and Rule 20 proceedings under the Minnesota Rules of Criminal Procedure. Examiners and institutions use ERA to track their court-appointed work and invoice for evaluation services. ERA reference materials and registration information are found on the ERA Training tab.

ATTENTION ERA USERS

* WHEN VIEWING DOCUMENTS: Use a Portable Document Format (PDF) viewer such as Adobe Reader to view documents downloaded from ERA. Documents viewed within or printed from a Chrome, Edge, or Firefox browser window may be missing text.

This ERA application is used for the following evaluation services:

  • Civil Commitment examinations including Sexually Dangerous Persons/Sexually Psychopathic Personalities, Price and Jarvis Cases
  • Adult Rule 20.01 and 20.02 exams
This ERA application is NOT used for:
  • Prepetition examinations
  • Juvenile Rule 20.01 or 20.02 exams
  • Extended Juvenile Jurisdiction exams
  • Repeat sex offender presentencing assessments
  • Judicial Appeal Panel Exams

What if I need help or have questions?

For further assistance, use the Service Desk link that is located at the bottom of any screen within the Psychological Services Electronic Invoicing application or use the Technical Support Form.

 

Revisions to the Psychological/Psychiatric Examiner Services Roster Policy went into effect on October 1, 2019.
 

Revisions to the Psychological/Psychiatric Examiner Services Payment Policy went into effect on October 13, 2022.

State Court Administrator Policy 510(a) - Psychological/Psychiatric Examiner Services Payment (effective July 8, 2024)

Effective October 1, 2019, SCA Policies 510(a) & 510(b) are accompanied by the Psychological/Psychiatric Examiner Services Program Manual (Program Manual). The Program Manual establishes procedures for the administration of both policies and provides best practice guidance for examiner services.

Effective May 10, 2010, examiners who anticipate exceeding $5,000 in service hours for an SDP/SPP exam, must submit a Request to Exceed SDP/SPP Maximum Fee form for judicial approval prior to incurring the expense.

The Request to Exceed form and Instruction Sheet are provided below:

The examiner report templates were created as a result of recommendations from the 2019 Psych Examiner Service Judicial Workgroup. See Fast Facts - Psych Examiner Report Templates.

Examiner Reports 

Report Templates for criminal competency examinations pursuant to Minnesota Statutes, sections 611.40-59 and Minn. R. Crim. P. Rule 20.01 are under revision. 

Please be aware that when using Fillable Smart Forms for the first time, you may need to change the default settings on your browser so that PDF documents open in Acrobat and not the web browser. Review the revised Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs), Fast Facts, and Quick Reference Guides on the Court Forms Information Help Topic site for more helpful information. Steps for updating your browser are covered in FAQ #5.

Examiner Reports - Civil Commitments

The examiner civil commitment report templates were created in 2003 as best practice recommendation from the Psychological Services Advisory Committee. The report templates accomplish these goals:

  • Organize examiner information in a consistent order of uniform headings;
  • Prompt examiners to include relevant information in answers to standard case type specific questions (e.g., history, examination processes and results, and the relevant legal standard); and
  • Accommodate variations in case processing and examiners' perspectives by providing expandable free-form text boxes to explain/expound on answers to standard questions.

Examiners are strongly encouraged to use the report templates. 

Examiner Reports - SDP/SPP Case Types

Psychological/Psychiatric Examiner Services Program
State Court Administrator's Office
25 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd
St. Paul, MN 55155

Send an email via our contact form
 

Communications Archive

Please review the communications archive for the most recent communications sent about the ERA rollout and training.