What to Expect in a Forensic Examination
*Note To Attorney: This is a part of my informed consent process. I go over this with the claimant and I tailor it to specific situations. Although it is lengthy, it will give you a good idea of how I work and the process involved.
AN INFORMAL NOTE ABOUT WHAT POLICIES AND PROCEDURES TO ANTICIPATE IN A FORENSIC PSYCHOLOGICAL EXAMINATION
This note is an informal attempt to let you know what to expect from this forensic examination process so that you can consent to proceed. It covers a description of the basic procedures of a “typical” examination, some possible negative outcomes of the examination, and my role and legal status as an independent forensic expert. Please ask me and your attorney about any questions or concerns that you may have about this examination at any time.
So that you know something more about me professionally, I will provide you with a copy of the my resume and biographical sketch. Please take it home and read it when you have time. While I do provide therapy, I do not think it is a good idea for you to be my therapy patient while the forensic examination is being conducted. However, do not be reluctant to get therapy elsewhere during the examination because you fear that being in therapy may reflect badly on you. If you are feeling the weight of the current situation, I strongly advise you to get some therapeutic assistance for yourself. If you take care of yourself, you will be better able to cope with the pressures of the situation.
Expect that you will be asked to consent to the forensic examination and to agree to a release and exchange of information. The consent allows me to read your records and to discuss you and your legal case with other persons who might be relevant collateral sources of information. As with your examination, these consultations are not confidential in that I may wind up testifying about the results. You are releasing me and these collateral sources from all liability for these consultations. It is partly in this reading of records and in the making of these collateral contacts with other persons that a forensic examination differs from a clinical evaluation and from therapy.
Examinations often include testing plus at least one or two interview sessions. We will discuss background information about your life and the issues that are relevant to the situation and the examination. When the examination is completed, I will report my impressions and recommendations to the retaining attorney. I recognize that my impressions and recommendations may be very important to you. However, please do not ask me to try to give you an opinion until I have had a full opportunity to consider all sides, review the psychological test results, fully review the file, and make my report to the attorney. The reason that I make my report to the attorney who retained me is that the attorney, and not you, is my client. You are the client of the attorney who you retained.
I will review whatever relevant background information is provided by you or the attorney(s). Whether your attorney or the opposing counsel retained me, you will be administered the same standard battery of psychological tests, inventories, and questionnaires. Additional background reading and assessment may also be required depending on the issues raised. The more serious or complicated the allegations or complaints, the more time the interviews usually take. Consulting with and doing extra tasks involving your attorney, other agencies, and other professionals, reading documents, interviewing your friends, neighbors, and relatives, writing reports and preparing and providing depositions and court testimony all take substantial time. Emergencies and crises during this time are to be handled by you, by your attorney, or by your therapist.
Please remember, no verbal or written report will be prepared or issued and no testimony will be provided until all fees are paid in full by the attorney(s). I am retained by them and they are my clients. I will not go to court to testify when owed a large bill, because it might be argued to have influenced my judgment. Your attorney has been given a copy of my fee statement. Please feel free to discuss the fee agreement with your attorney, in case you are ultimately responsible for reimbursing your attorney for the cost of this examination. If you are not in agreement with any of these positions, please discuss it with me and with your attorney as soon as possible.
My oral or written report will focus primarily on the areas of the examination that I think are the most relevant to the alleged injury, impairment, and disability. The records and report, if I write one, are only available to you through the legal process and not from this office directly. If you would like more feedback on the results of your examination, and there are not legal or ethical restrictions preventing me from doing this, I will gladly share the rest of the test results with you after the legal matter is completed. As long as this feedback session is limited to my sharing with you the results of the psychological testing of yourself, there will be no charge for that additional session. If you wish to question me about the reasons for my opinions and recommendations, please have your attorney schedule a deposition so that the other attorney may also be present.
Read all the documents I give you with special care and show them to your attorney. I wish to emphasize a common theme that will run throughout your contact with this office: my role in this examination is not to be "your expert" or "your witness" or the opposing counsel’s witness but rather to be the "court's expert," even if I am not formally court appointed. My essential role is to assist the court. This is true regardless of who contacted me, who retained me, and who paid for the examination. You should know that because of this and in the interest of obtaining testimony that is without duress, most courts have held that expert witnesses are granted immunity from civil liability in all aspects of their role as expert evaluator and expert witness, even if the expert makes mistakes. This is to help protect experts from having to examine and testify under coercive pressures.
Please do not try to control the process or the outcome of this examination. Consider this forewarning in the light that I am very likely to form at least some impressions about you and to interpret some of your psychological test results in a way that you may find painful to hear and that you may think are inaccurate as they may well be. This is not an exact process or science. There are at least four general aspects of this process that you may find upsetting and painful: 1) possibly re-living events as part of the examination process, 2) being asked about very personal and private aspects of your life, 3) hearing the results of the examination-some of which are very likely to be negative, and 4) having other people be informed about very personal aspects of your life in a very public forum as part of my report, deposition, and testimony.
As may be apparent, these policies, procedures, and contracts are intentionally designed to allow me to be as legally, professionally, and financially independent of you as possible. In this way I maintain my personal integrity and you potentially have a witness that has credibility with the court. If you are seeking an expert who is willing to agree to be an advocate for you or for your position before he or she objectively reviews the case materials and thoroughly examines you, then please reconsider my services. I know this may sound ominous, but I feel it is better that you know "up front" what it is that you are getting into--especially the risks. I do my best to provide you an independent, neutral, objective examination. This is quite different from your discussing problems with a therapist who is trying to help you. The forensic expert’s task is to help the court and not your individual cause or legal position.
You may decide after reading these forms and considering these policies that you do not want to be evaluated or do not want to be examined by my services. If you feel that way, please tell me and please tell your attorney.
I look forward to proceeding with you on this examination.
Sincerely,
Barbara Markway, Ph.D.,
Licensed Psychologist