Skip to main content

Free Book: Psychological Evaluations in Litigation: A Practical Guide for Attorneys and Insurance Adjusters

    For over 30 years I’ve been doing psychological evaluations in litigation. In 2011 I published the second edition of Psychological Evaluations in Litigation: A Practical Guide for Attorneys and Insurance Adjusters. 

    At this link you’ll find a free copy of my book (https://drleckartwetc.com/wpcontent/uploads/2012/10/FINAL-051311.pdf). No viruses included so you can feel free to open it. Trust me, I’m a doctor! 

    Among the many things you can do with this book is determine if a psych report is flawed. Then when you make that discovery you can try to figure out how you can expose the doctor and their report on cross-examination. This is not an easy task unless you’re both an attorney and a shrink. It can be done and the book tells you how to do it. This is the one hundred thirty-eighth of a series of monthly newsletters aimed at providing information about predeposition/pre-trial consultations, psychological evaluations and treatment that may be of interest to attorneys and insurance adjusters working in the areas of workers’ compensation and personal injury. If you have not received some or all of our past newsletters, and would like copies, send us an email requesting the newsletter(s) that you would like forwarded to you. 

    However, you will probably find that the hard part is figuring out which questions to ask and what to do when the doctor blows smoke up your “you know what.” At that point you can commission me to write an ApricotTM. An ApricotTM is a written report that describes the major flaws that exist in a psych report using easy-to-understand terminology that provides information that an attorney needs to successfully cross-examine a psychiatrist, a psychologist or a neuropsychologist and/or draft a brief for the court. An ApricotTM also provides an extensive list of questions telling you exactly how to cross-examine the doctor to reveal those flaws and get the judge and/or jury on your side leading to victory for your client. 

    If you have any questions, give me a call, I’m always happy to help and there is no charge for talking

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Understanding The Source of Weak Psych Reports

If you’re an attorney or an adjuster in workers’ compensation or personal injury, general liability, or any jurisdiction where a psych doctor produces a report of their evaluation or treatment in response to the claim of a mental injury, you are always confronted with psych reports that are weak. But do you understand them and do you know how to defeat them? Let me help you do both! This month I’ll tell you how to understand them. In the next two months, I’ll tell you how to beat them.   Many of you who have referred workers’ compensation and personal injury cases to me over the last three plus decades know that I have evaluated between 5,000 and 10,000 applicants and plaintiffs. As part of my practice I’ve read tens of thousands of psych reports, the vast majority of which are demonstrably substantially flawed.    First, a little of my professional history will help to understand what I think is going on. For the first 30 years after getting my Ph.D. I was a full-time college professo
Post a Comment
Read more

A Horror Story For Insurance Companies

     John Jones gets injured. For this horror story, it doesn’t matter if he was at work or shopping in a supermarket. It doesn’t even matter how the claimed injury occurred or even if he was really injured.       John gets a lawyer to represent his interests. For the sake of discussion, let’s assume the lawyer files the claim saying the injury was psychological or psychiatric. The lawyer then sends John to a psychologist or a psychiatrist for an evaluation and treatment. The doctor writes a report stating that John had an injury. He begins treatment. The insurance company representing the defendant sends John to another doctor for an opinion. That doctor doesn’t completely concur with John’s lawyer’s doctor but agrees that John was psychologically injured.       At some later time in the claims process, the insurance company pays John some money to compensate him for his injury. John, his lawyer, the insurance company, the defense’s lawyer, and both doctors are all happy with the sett
Post a Comment
Read more

Flawed Psych Reports: Winners and Losers

     I have to admit that for the 35 years I have been practicing forensic psychology I have been on a crusade.       Before I started my practice I was a tenured full professor, an academic who did research, wrote and edited journal articles and books, served on Ph.D. committees and taught a variety of courses. Believe it or not, although I wrote a book on boredom, eventually my life at the university became boring. One afternoon while playing tennis with an orthopedist friend I was complaining about my boredom when he said, “Have you ever thought about doing workers’ compensation?” I said, “What’s that?” He replied that he would bring me some psych reports and did so at our next tennis game. I took a quick look at those reports and said, “You’re kidding! This is garbage. I can do a better job standing on my head.” That was the beginning of the biggest change in my life!       For the last 35 years I’ve focused on how awful most medical-legal reports are. In fact, I’ve read what I est
Post a Comment
Read more