Clinicians in Court

MEDICAL DIRECTOR’S BOOKSHELF Clinicians in Court. Allan E. Barsky and Jonathan W. Gould. The Guilford Press. New York. 2002. 253 pages. $35. Intended Audience/Purpose The authors state that this book is written to assist “mental health and human service professionals” in preparing for involvement in the legal system, including areas of family law and child welfare trials, mental health hearings, malpractice law suits, criminal trials, government hearings, and private arbitration. The book is written to prepare this audience for responding to subpoenas or contacts from lawyers, preparing for one’s participation in adjudicative procedures, depositions, and/or court testimony. Style/Organization This book is written in a typical textbook style with 11 chapters, which are referenced and indexed. There is a glossary of common legal and medical-legal terminology and several very helpful appendices. The book consists of 253 pages. Strengths/Weaknesses This text begins with chapters introducing the learner to the legal “culture,” one’s willingness to participate in the legal arena, and the roles and responsibilities that a clinician undertakes when working in this field. Useful information is provided about the nature of legal testimony, particularly highlighting differences from the clinician’s customary way of thinking and behaving in their usual role as a health provider. Rules of evidence are covered, and the final chapters deal with “claims against clinicians,” including some information about risk management, and “alternatives to adjudication.” Since the readership of the bookshelf is primarily the healthcare provider working in the long-term care continuum, I found the major weakness of this book to be its

REVIEWS

nonspecificity to this clinical area. Case studies and examples were written throughout the book dealing with family law and child welfare. While the material presented was relevant to our field, it requires considerable effort at “translation,” which requires some prior knowledge of legal processes related to geriatrics and long-term care. I believe the novice reader would have a great deal of difficulty in doing this “translation” in order to extract the good material and advice in this book. As a result of this nonspecificity for geriatric medicine, important terms are not found in the glossary, such as “capacity” and “competence,” “neglect” and “gross neglect,” and so forth. The strengths of this book include its clear style; ample coverage of the topic; and the appendices, which comprise examples of a service agreement for an expert witness, fee arrangement of an expert witness, and informed consent to participate in a forensic psychological evaluation. I personally found the explanations of the roles of experts— for example, advocate, impartial expert, “ivory tower academic,” and consultant—to be extremely well written and helpful. Commentary A clinician that has some experience in the medical-legal arena may benefit from ownership of this book. It would be a reasonable acquisition for a medical library serving a wide variety of healthcare providers. The average physician involved in geriatrics/long-term care and considering involvement in expert witnessing or who is unwillingly involved in a medical-legal proceeding may find benefit from reading this book, but might also be disappointed by its nonspecificity to our field. David A. Smith, MD, FAAFP, CMD Geriatric Consultants of Central Texas Brownwood, Texas

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