Psychological Medico-Legal Reporting
Equilibria Health is one of the leading psychological medicolegal expert witness report writing service in Scotland. We work with firms such as Digby Brown, Jackson Boyd, Thompsons, Carpenters and Friends Legal, along with many more. We produce around 100 reports per month for the court, prepared by our highly qualified, experienced, and reliable in house psychology team.
What is Psychological Medico-Legal Reporting?
A psychology report for court is known as a medico-legal report which is produced by an expert witness to give an unbiased independent and objective opinion based on their expertise within that field.
Medico-legal reports are documents that details the written evidence of a medical expert witness. If someone has suffered a psychological injury or distress as a result of an accident/incident then a medico-legal report can help assess the difficulties, clarify the severity of their injury, provide a view on causation and provide treatment recommendations and prognosis for recovery. The psychologist instructed would assess the client and create a report for the courts.
A medico-legal report is addressed to the court. This is because experts have an overriding duty to the court and not to the instructing party. This means that the report cannot be biased and must only be based on their honest professional opinion.
Why might you need a psychological report?
If a claimant has sustained injuries, either physical or psychological, evidence is necessary to prove the harm suffered. To present a claim to a defendant without any evidence to substantiate the harm suffered, it’s unlikely they’ll entertain the claim at all until such evidence is provided. Therefore, it becomes necessary to work with experts for the purpose of obtaining medico-legal reports.
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A relevant expert would be able to assess the full extent of a client’s injury. They assess the initial symptoms, their longevity and establish a prognosis too. Psychological medico-legal reporting, in this regard, is very in-depth as its primary purpose is to provide expert analysis on the injuries acquired. In addition, the report can help establish causation between the actual event and the harm suffered. This is partly done by the expert reviewing the client’s medical history to see if there was any pre-existing mental illness. Through this, the expert can come to any of the following conclusions:
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• All of the psychological distress/issue were as a direct result of the incident.
• There may have been a pre-existing mental illness that was exacerbated by the incident. They can also conclude that some mental harm was caused by the incident and other mental health problems were exacerbated by it.
• The mental health issues were already present before the incident, weren’t worsened by it, and so were not caused by it.
The report from the medico-legal psychologist also enables lawyers to value the injuries suffered. A medical report serves as a key piece of evidence in a claim relating to injury. Without the ability to prove that the injuries were, on the balance of probabilities, caused by the accident, and with no knowledge of the severity of those injuries, it can be difficult to firstly prove a claim, and secondly, to judge how much it’s worth.
What should a Psychologist's Medico-Legal Report contain?
It provides a detailed, impartial report of a claimant’s psychological injuries.
A psychologist expert will assess the following:
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The circumstances of the accident or event, and whether the injury could be caused by this.
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The nature of the injuries and the effect they’ve had on the claimant’s life.
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A review of previous medical history – mental health
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Treatment already provided to the claimant and whether the treatment plan has been successful.
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They will typically include results of psychometric tests but also observations and analysis of documents.
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Recommendations for treatment
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The claimant’s prognosis for recovery and details relating to permanent or future issues as a result of the incident.
Why choose Equilibria Health?
It can be difficult to find a relevant expert for psychologist medico-legal reporting. Using search engines can bring up hundreds of results.
Equilibria have an extensive network of specialist psychological experts covering all manner of fields – located across the United Kingdom & Ireland. All of our psychologist are staff members, we are not an agency.
Appointments are made as easy as possible for clients by offering a range of services; both face-to-face, and remote.
At equilibria our Expert Psychologists carry out a diverse range of medico-legal psychological assessments. Our psychology medico-legal reports are crafted to the highest quality and are designed to be accessible to both those who have commissioned the report and other professionals. Clients are provided with a detailed psychological report and an executive summary, which draws out the key findings of the medico-legal report in a format that can be quickly understood by those with no formal training in psychology or law. We pride our self in delivering high-quality services to all of our clients.
Our medico-legal psychologists appreciate how difficult it is to deal with court cases. We pride ourselves on our sensitivity and understanding during assessments. We do our utmost to ensure that the person who is assessed is treated with courtesy and respect. We undertake to listen to each client who is being evaluated and customise the assessment to meet their individual needs and circumstances.
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