Personal Injury Evaluations

A personal injury psychological evaluation is a thorough assessment of an individual's mental health following a personal injury. It involves a series of tests and interviews conducted by a qualified psychologist. The aim is to understand the psychological impact of the injury on the individual.

Personal injury evaluations are forensic evaluations, meaning that there is a legal component to the evaluation. The goal of a forensic evaluation in a personal injury case is to do a pre and post-injury comparison to examine the impact of an event on a person’s functioning and how this will impact them in the future.

The purpose of retaining an expert is to complete an objective evaluation and provide an unbiased opinion.When we complete a personal injury evaluation, we evaluate the plaintiff at five points in time.  The reasoning behind this is that we want to demonstrate how the event impacted and harmed the person.

Here are the five points in time that we would look at: 

1.    Functioning prior to the alleged injury

2.    Functioning during/ just after the alleged injury

3.    Functioning between injury and evaluation

4.    Functioning at the time of the evaluation

5.    Functioning in the future

There are multiple elements which we look to account for and evaluate in a personal injury assessment. This evaluation would involve the following:

  • Consultation with the attorney to gather more information on the reasons why the evaluation is needed

  • Full Psychosocial Interview - A psychologist asks questions about the person's mental health history, current symptoms, and how the injury impacts their daily life 

  • Assessment Measures – different psychological and neuropsychological tests used to objectively assess for mental health or neuropsychological symptoms and disorders.

  • Administration of self-report inventories to gather additional relevant data, such as measuring symptoms of depression, anxiety, or posttraumatic stress disorder

  • Assessment for symptom fabrication or exaggeration

  • Behavioral Observations

  • Records Review – a full review of pre-injury functioning with may include collateral interviews with treatment providers and family members who can provide insight into the plaintiff before and after the alleged traumatic event or injury

The final step is the completion of a legally defensible report which integrates all of the findings and is given to the plaintiff’s attorney.

Fees

  • Free 15-min Consultation Phone Call

  • Cost of Evaluation - $250/hr

  • Expedited Delivery Available- $500

  • $2500 retainer due at the time of booking

  • If required to testify additional fees will be incurred