Nova Scotia psychiatrists are refusing to staff the province's new mental health court until they get a new contract.

The contract dispute with the psychiatrists, employed by the Capital District Health Authority, comes as the court prepares to hear its first case Thursday in Dartmouth.

The psychiatrists say they haven't had a contract since April 2008 and their workload continues to grow.

"In the absence of a contract, our department has been providing thousands of hours of service for which it essentially has not been remunerated for the past couple of years," said Aileen Brunet, a forensic psychiatrist at the East Coast Forensic Hospital in Dartmouth.

"Then being asked to take on something new again, well, there has to come a point where we've decided we're going to say we can't give more, we can't take on new things," she said.

The team preparing to launch the new court says it plans to proceed without the psychiatrists if necessary.

Final stages of negotiating deal

Private psychiatrists could be brought in to keep the caseload moving, said Sherri Aikenhead, spokeswoman for the Department of Justice.

"The team was made aware of the issue last week and looked at it very carefully. They determined it would not directly impact the operations in the first few weeks of this court," she said.

Premier Darrell Dexter told the legislative assembly Tuesday that his government is in the final stages of hammering out an agreement with the psychiatrists.

But unless it's signed by Thursday morning, said Brunet, the new mental health court will have to start without her and other psychiatrists.

The court is designed for people with mental illness who come into conflict with the law. It will divert some people away from the criminal justice system and into treatment programs.