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Many patients experience psychiatric hospital admission as coercive (Hoge et al., 1997; Lidz et al., 1995; McKenna, Simpson, & Laidlaw, 1999; Monahan et al., 1995; Nicholson, Ekenstam, & Norwood, 1996). Clinicians are ethically and morally bound to consider ways of reducing this sense of coercion. The application of ‘procedural justice’principles is seen as a means of achieving this aim (Bennett et al., 1993; Cascardi & Poythress, 1997; Hiday, Swartz, Swanson, & Wagner, 1997; Lidz et al., 1995). The concept of ‘procedural justice’has developed from research involving participants in court proceedings to include three distinct components. The components are a perception by participants that the decision-making processes are fair and just, that they are actively included in the processes, and that professionals or authorities involved exhibit personal qualities that are congruent with the intent of the processes …