October 2002

Law and Mental Illness Legal Clinic Takes Students to Court

By Elena Barbre

Students taking the School of Law's mental illness legal clinic course relinquish the comfort zone of the typical classroom for the chance to practice their advocacy skills in a real courtroom. The course, taught by Joanmarie Davoli, director of the school's Law and Mental Illness Clinic, focuses on the practical side of legal training by allowing students to represent real clients at weekly civil commitment hearings. At the same time, it also teaches students about laws affecting the mentally ill.

"Law students spend a lot of time in the classroom, but this course takes them to court to hear real cases," says Davoli, an expert on mental illness law and a former criminal defense attorney who started the clinic in the spring of 1999. "Our students get experience in court in the mornings and experience in the classroom in the afternoons."

Not only do the students benefit, but the clinic also serves a valuable function for the Fairfax County judicial system by providing free representation to petitioners in civil commitment hearings in Fairfax County.

In Virginia, a mentally ill person who is resisting treatment receives a court-appointed defense attorney to assist him. But the petitioner, who is usually a family member with no legal training, must either hire an attorney or represent himself, attempting to introduce evidence, produce testimony, respond to objections, and argue points of law, says Davoli.

Without the aid of legal counsel, family members of the mentally ill are thrust into the court system with no preparation and little idea of what to expect, compounding an already complex and emotional situation. "It's a big burden on citizens that no buffer is provided for petitioners in these cases," says Davoli. "In addition to representing the petitioners and arguing their cases, our students are the buffer. They bring balance to civil commitment hearings and ensure that petitioners' concerns for, realistic fears of, and evidence about the mentally ill person are properly before the court."

Having third-year law students represent these petitioners under the supervision of an experienced trial attorney allows the clinic to advocate for the family members and ensure that all the important information about the patient is presented to the judge, who determines whether the patient needs psychiatric treatment.

"We're filling a void in Fairfax County," says Davoli, who gives the students one-on-one support throughout the process. "This is a very welcome program, and the only one of its kind."

Davoli notes that this is not a comfortable, easy experience for the students, who are working on their juris doctor degrees and whose interests range from prosecution to medical malpractice. But it is an experience they will never forget.

Clinic graduate Anne Corbin notes that "practicing advocacy skills is a rare event in law school" and says the clinic gave her a "great and rare opportunity to participate in actual cases."

"The clinic has provided me with great insight into the lives of the mentally ill patients and has dispelled any stereotypes that I may have had about mentally ill patients," says graduate Kourosh Sabet-Payman.

Pete Schwartz, a defense attorney who graduated in 1999, says the clinic enhanced his initial comfort level in the courtroom and gave him a "really good view of what most real courtrooms are like."

The petitioners also have expressed great satisfaction with their representation by George Mason law students. One mother, who had been unsuccessful in previous attempts to have her son with schizophrenia hospitalized, wrote a letter commending student Jillian Cass for an "outstanding job of asking the right questions, bringing up the salient points of the case, and countering the questions and points the court's appointed lawyer was trying to make on my son's behalf." She noted that the support of Cass and Davoli "made all the difference in my fight to get my son help for his illness."