Undue Influence? Abuse of Trust? Elder Abuse? Increasingly, caregivers are taking a central role in the lives of parents and spouses when there aren’t enough hands to go around. See also Dr. Raffle’s Undue Influence in the Making of Bequests companion article. What are the indicators which may point to a caregiver raiding a patient’s assets? …
Reasons the Treating Psychotherapist Should Not Be the Expert Witness In civil cases where emotional distress is alleged, it often occurs that the plaintiff’s attorney designates the treater as his expert. Usually the argument is that the plaintiff’s own therapist (“the treater”) has spent many more hours with the plaintiff than the defense expert and therefore…
All psychiatric reports evaluate something, but not always the same thing. For example, eligibility for benefits, or fitness to do a job (e.g., in HR arenas, as well as wrongful termination and discrimination lawsuits). To make sense of the report, the reader must determine what is being evaluated and how it is being done. Psychiatric…
It is not possible to discuss Diminished Capacity (Diminished Responsibility) without first understanding the legal concept of insanity since both are joined at their ideological hip by mens rea. Diminished Capacity, like insanity, is a legal concept not a medical diagnosis. The overarching principle of diminished capacity is that an accused’s level of responsibility for…
I believe the courtroom is a unique place with special rules that must be understood in order for the most effective presentation of the technical data to occur. The process is adversarial, which is generally contrary to the experience of academicians or people who practice a profession but do not testify as a forensic expert….
The clinical aspects of pain and psychiatric consequences have occupied my attention for many years. As a psychiatrist I was Assistant Clinical Professor of Orthopedics at University of California San Francisco Medical School for 15 years. I focused my work in that Department on the assessment and treatment of chronic pain and psychopathology. The mind-body…
Mental and emotional injuries in employment litigation are damages usually sought by plaintiffs. These damages are generally subsumed under the category of “emotional distress” by which is included mental suffering, mental anguish, or mental or nervous shock as well as “all highly unpleasant mental reactions such as fright, horror, grief, shame, humiliation, embarrassment, anger, chagrin,…
“Dangerousness” has three constituents: the assessment of risk (“risk factors”), the type of violence being predicted (“harm”) and the likelihood harm will occur (“risk”). (Violence and Mental Disorder. Monahan and Steadman. Univ. of Chicago Press. 1994). Dangerousness at the workplace takes many forms. I will be using the workplace as an example of one setting…
Toronto Star, “Is Russell Williams Still Grasping for Control?” By Jim Rankin, April 18, 2010 [Background: Col. Russell Williams in the Canadian Forces and a former Base Commander was convicted in a string of murders, rapes, breaking and entering, forcible confinement and sexual assault, following a history of escalating violent behavior. At the time the…
As a forensic psychiatrist I have worked on many fascinating cases. Following are studies of a few cases in which I have testified and forensic issues requiring a Psychiatrist. In most instances, details are changed to preserve confidentiality.
