7/2/2023 0 Comments Expert witness psychologist![]() Forensic work differs in several respects from clinical treatment. The fish out of water problem: treating versus testifying. Expert witnesses are qualified (i.e., accepted by the court to give opinions and conclusions) by knowledge, training and experience to offer opinions on psychiatric issues in order to educate the court about matters not generally known to laypeople. While a fact witness may testify in court only on what was directly observed by the five senses, an expert witness is permitted by the court to draw conclusions from all data, even data not personally observed by that witness (e.g., hospital records). Most psychiatrists view themselves as having some expertise in the field, so why isn't everyone an expert witness? The answer here lies in the fact that expert witness is a role function, not a credential involving knowledge of a discipline such as psychiatry. ![]() Because expert work takes place in an adversary system, the subject can be heuristically explored in terms of various adversarial scenarios.Įxpert witness versus clinical expertise. The American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law (AAPL), the national forensic psychiatric organization, defines forensic psychiatry as the application of psychiatric knowledge and skills to legal issues in legal contexts. Forensic psychiatry embraces a host of functions, including civil, criminal, legislative, ethical, administrative, institutional and organizational issues but here we focus on the role of expert witness in a civil or criminal case.įorensic Psychiatry's Definitions of an Expert Witness Psychiatric & Mental Health Congress in Boston and is stimulated by the current rapid growth of interest and participation in forensic work (Berger, 1997 Gutheil, 1998 Melton et al., 1997). This article is based on and condensed from a presentation at the 2001 U.S. To allay some of this confusion and to demystify the subject, this overview attempts to briefly summarize some of the essentials of this fascinating field. ![]() ![]() If psychiatry is often confusing and mysterious to the layperson, forensic psychiatry is even more confusing and mysterious - even to psychiatrists. ![]()
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