Expertise: Specializing in applications of clinical psychiatry to legal issues in civil and criminal matters at the interface of Psychiatry and the Law. Has served as an evaluator or expert witness in about three hundred cases in State and Federal courts in matters relating to:
- Mental State at Time-of-the-Offense Evaluations
- Insanity Defense / Diminished Capacity
- Civil & Criminal Competency Evaluations
- Competency to Stand Trial / Competency to Waive Miranda Rights
- Testamentary Capacity / Testimonial Capacity / Informed Consent
- Capital Sentencing & Mitigation
- Risk of Violence Assessments
- Sex Offenders
- Sexual Harassment
- Worker's Compensation
| - Independent Medical Evaluations / Psychiatric Disability
- Personal Injury / Pain & Suffering / Emotional Distress
- Workplace Violence Assessments
- Discrimination
- Evaluations under Americans With Disabilities Act
- Fitness for Duty
- Psychiatric Malpractice
- Toxic Tort
- Product Liability
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Professional Background: Certified by ABPN in Psychiatry and Forensic Psychiatry. Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Director of Psychiatry and Law Program at MCP Hahanemann University. Director of Psychiatry & Law Program and Director of Correctional Mental Health Services Program/Provider of Mental Health Services for the City of Philadelphia Prison System. Formerly Director of Psychiatry & Law Program at the Medical College of Virginia. M.D. Degree -University of Massachusetts. Psychiatry Residency & Forensic Psychiatry Fellowship -Tulane University Medical Center.
Wills are generally contested either on the grounds that the testator lacked Testamentary Capacity (was incompetent to make a will at the time of signing it) or the testator, because of his/her mental state, was subject to Undue Influence (i.e. if there is evidence of coercion, manipulation, deception, compulsion, intimidation, etc.) or an Undue Influence secondary to a thought disturbance (such as delusions affecting the testator's free will in making decisions).
