Forensic Psychiatry: A Lawyer’s Guide

Lawyers frequently encounter clients and/or cases of bizarre behavior, mental illness, substance abuse, psychopathy, sexual offenses, learning disorders, birth defects, and other behavioral and emotional issues. Often they are ill-prepared to understand the nature of the psychiatric report, how the psychiatric assessment was structured, and how to best utilize and challenge these reports in court.Forensic Psychiatry: A Lawyer’s Guide provides legal professionals the tools to identify mentally ill clients and help them navigate through the psychiatric information and language in reports and testimony. Topics include why a forensic psychiatrist is necessary, applications of psychiatry to law, various psychiatric disorders, and utilizing the expert witness.

CONTENTS

Chapter 1: Why you need a forensic psychiatrist

Chapter 2: What is psychiatry?

Chapter 3: Applications of psychiatry to law

Chapter 4: The Mental Status Examination

Chapter 5: Common psychiatric diagnoses

Chapter 6: Bad vs. Mad

Chapter 7: Critical concept in competency

Chapter 8: Treatable disorders vs brain damage

Chapter 9: Medical problems

Chapter 10: Hearing voices

Chapter 11: Your Expert Witness

Chapter 12: Summary and conclusionsGlossary of Terms