Current Standards for Recording Defense Medical Examinations and Psychological Evaluations and Assessments

Recording Defense Medical Examinations and Psychological Evaluations and Assessments Used in a Court of Law: Is It Allowed?

Injury cases in the court system allow for damages for physical and mental injuries. While mental injuries can be more subjective, a sympathetic plaintiff stands to reap thousands of dollars for it.

Defense attorneys and their insurance companies are heavily invested in disproving mental injuries and will hire their own expert witness to perform a Defense Medical Examination.

Plaintiff’s counsel will counter these efforts by demanding to record the doctor’s evaluation in progress to point out bias and flaws. Under what standards, if any, will a court allow the recording of a doctor’s work while it is being performed?

Erase the fear, uncertainty, and doubt over proving your case for mental injures when the defense hires its own expert to disprove yours.

When the defense hires its own doctor to examine a party plaintiff, when may a court allow the recording of a doctor’s work while it is being performed, if such recording is allowed at all?

Webinar Objectives

• Outline of Plaintiff’s damages necessitating expert witness testimony on mental health diagnoses;
• Explanation of the necessity as to the use of a defense medical expert;
• Types of doctors who may perform an expert witness evaluation and more importantly to testify about it;
• Examples of standards in state licensure law that may prevent a mental health professional from allowing such a recording ;
• Examples of national codes of ethics used for guidance by the courts and how codes of ethics may not apply, and;
• Review a new case from the New Jersey appellate courts on if and when a litigant may record examinations by medical professionals retained by defendants – or have third-parties accompany them to such a session.

Webinar Agenda

This advanced webinar examines the court standards a judge may use to allow a defense medical examination to be recorded for scrutiny. Injury cases in the court system allow for mental health damages as a kind of personal injury. Mental injuries can be more subjective than physical injuries, yet sympathetic plaintiffs stand to gain thousands of dollars in money damages for them.

Because of the thousands of dollars at stake, defense attorneys and their insurance companies who bankroll them will often hire their own expert witness doctor to perform their own Defense Medical Examination.

How can the plaintiff counter such inquiries? There will be a demand for the recording of the Defense Medical Examination or the permission to have the event observed by a third party.

Under what standards, if any, may a court allow the recording of the doctor’s work while it is being performed?

The appellate courts of New Jersey examined these very issues in three separate personal injury cases combined with standards for how all such actions may allow the recording of a Defense Medical Examination. The courts outlined a framework for both the recording of Defense Medical Examinations and the allowance of third-parties simply to observe them.

See how judges of the trial court may decide on a case-by-case basis how and even whether to allow these third-party observations or the recording of the entire Defense Medical Examination. Inflexible rules will not do in these cases where “too many permutations of circumstances” require an inflexible rule to be used in all situations. Whose burden is it then to demonstrate those standards have been met? Find out in this new, advanced webinar that provides answers as to recording Defense Medical Examinations and Psychological Evaluations and Assessments.

Who Should Attend

Plaintiff’s Attorneys; Mental Health Professionals; Defense Attorneys, Insurance Attorneys; Insurance Adjustors; Psychiatrists; Psychologists; Social Workers; Marriage and Family Therapists; Professional Clinical Counselors; Alcohol and Drug Counselors; Pastoral Counselors