THE ULTIMATE OPINION RULE AND PSYCHOLOGISTS - A COMPARISON OF THE EXPECTATIONS AND EXPERIENCES OF SOUTH-AFRICAN LAWYERS

Strictly speaking, the ultimate legal issue rule does not form part of modern South African law and psychologists can therefore be asked to express opinions on such issues. In this study judges, advocates, pros ecutors and magistrates were asked to indicate to what extent they exp ect, and in fact find, that psychologists express ultimate opinions in respect of criminal responsibility, child custody and sentencing issu es. Respondents expected psychologists to express ultimate legal opini ons regarding criminal responsibility and child custody issues. They d id not expect psychologists to express such opinions about sentences i n criminal matters. The respondents believed that psychologists are pr epared to give opinions in respect of all three relevant ultimate issu es. The only significant difference between jurists' expectations and experience of psychologists' conduct was in respect of sentencing wher e respondents believed that they were overly inclined to express opini ons regarding the type of sentence a defendant should be given. (C) 19 97 John Whey & Sons, Ltd.