Competence to stand trial and criminal responsibility have deep roots as legal concepts. Even so, conceptual, technical, and professional bases for clinical evaluations in criminal cases were vague and often inchoate prior to the 1970's. Over the past 25 years, the nature, purpose, and quality of clinical assessments for courts have been influenced by developments in four areas: (1) laws that identify what clinical assessments for courts are expected to address; (2) research development of the technology and knowledge base for assessment practices; (3) professional standards that guide and control assessment practices; and (4) service delivery systems that form the real world context in which assessments for courts are performed. Past trends and probable future directions in each of the preceding four areas are addressed as they pertain to clinical evaluations for competence to stand trial and criminal responsibility. Recommendations are offered to protect advances of the past 25 years and to improve the credibility and integrity of clinical assistance to criminal courts. 49 references