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Monday, October 13, 2025

Courts Urged To Work With States To Address Mental Illness - Law360

A national task force is encouraging courts to form working groups with state government officials, among other recommendations, to better help individuals with mental illnesses in the civil and criminal legal systems.

The National Judicial Task Force to Examine State Courts' Responses to Mental Illness, which is co-chaired by Vermont Supreme Court Chief Justice Paul Reiber and New York Chief Administrative Judge Lawrence Marks, released a report on Tuesday with its recommendations based on two years of studying state court systems.

The report's recommendations include diverting individuals with mental illnesses to treatment, reforming the competency to stand trial system, changing civil commitment laws, training judges and court professionals on trauma and behavioral health and collecting data on cases involving individuals with mental illnesses.

Marks said during a virtual event Tuesday that states wanting to implement the task force's recommendations should start by creating their own task forces or commissions with members from all three branches of state government.

"This is not a problem that the courts can solve on their own," he said.

According to the task force's report, courts are deeply impacted by people with mental illnesses and often serve as facilitators for people to get treatment.

The report highlighted research from the Treatment Advocacy Center, a nonprofit that aims to eliminate barriers to treating severe mental illnesses, finding that people with...



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