Criminal Defense & Specific Issue
Where someone denies an allegation and wants an independent examination on it. Most of this work reaches us through defense counsel, and it is generally better that it does — an examination taken through an attorney sits inside the attorney-client relationship in a way a self-instructed one does not.
A defense examination is narrow by design. It addresses the specific act alleged, not the person’s character or their history. One issue, one examination. If there are genuinely two separate allegations, that is two appointments, because mixing them degrades both results.
Admissibility in Georgia — the honest position
Polygraph evidence is admissible in Georgia courts only where the State and the defendant expressly stipulate, before the examination, that the result will be admitted whatever it shows. That rule comes from State v. Chambers, 240 Ga. 76 (1977), and it has not materially changed since. Without that prior stipulation, a Georgia court will not receive the result.
This has a practical consequence worth being blunt about: if you are hoping to take an examination, see a favourable result, and only then offer it to the court, that is not how it works. The agreement has to exist first, which in turn means your attorney needs to be talking to the prosecutor about it before you sit down with us. Any examiner who tells you a passed test will simply be accepted in evidence is either misinformed or is selling you something.
What an examination can do without a stipulation is still substantial. It informs the defense’s own view of the case. It can support a proffer, a plea negotiation, a bond argument, or a decision about whether a client should testify. Prosecutors and investigators are not obliged to give it weight, and some give it none — but a credible report from a properly conducted examination is a document your attorney can use in conversations that never reach a courtroom.
Working with counsel
We take instructions directly from attorneys and will discuss question wording with them before the appointment, which materially improves the result. Reports are written to be read by a lawyer: what was asked, in what format, what the data showed, and what the limits of that finding are. We do not overstate a result to please the party that paid for it, and an attorney who has used us more than once will tell you that is the point.
What this covers
- Single-issue format on the specific allegation
- Question wording settled with counsel in advance
- Written report suitable for use in negotiation or proffer
- Frank advice on the Chambers stipulation rule before you book
- Rooms within minutes of most Georgia courthouses
Discuss this before you book
Tell us what you need answered and we will tell you honestly whether this is the right examination for it.
Other services
Relationship & Infidelity Testing
For couples trying to settle a question of fidelity honestly and privately.
Attorney & Legal Instructions
Examinations instructed by counsel in criminal, family and civil matters.
Family & Adolescent Matters
Carefully handled examinations in family disputes, including older teenagers.