Mission
The mission of fpamed is to provide the legal profession with the highest quality evidence-based forensic psychiatric and psychological opinion and testimony.
Team
To accomplish this, we have built a specialty practice of highly trained forensic psychiatrists and psychologists. The psychiatrists are multiply boarded by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology in Psychiatry and Forensic Psychiatry. One of us is also board certified in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and one in Addiction Medicine. Four forensic psychiatrists are on the faculty of the Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine where they teach in the Law and Psychiatry Fellowship. Two neuropsychologists are board certified by the American Board of Professional Psychology, as well as in Forensic Psychology and Neuropsychology. One neuropsychologist received advanced training in Pediatric Neuropsychology, and another received advanced training in Developmental Psychology, specializing in autism. In addition to multiple board certifications, each of us has additional subspecialty expertise relevant to forensic psychiatric and psychological practice.
Interdisciplinary – Forensic Psychiatry & Psychology
We are a team of forensic psychiatrists and psychologists, with specialties including but not limited to child and adolescent forensic psychiatry, neuropsychiatry, neuropsychology, and forensic development psychology. We work on cases collaboratively, often employing the “case conference” approach used throughout medical education.
Communication Skills
Each one of our experts has excellent communication skills. We are experienced teachers and media experts who are adept at explaining complex and sometimes abstract concepts in simple and clearly understandable language, often illustrating our narratives with concrete and visual examples when possible. Teaching and interview experience has strengthened our testimonial skills.
Specialty Expertise
Included among the specialty skills of our group, is expertise in:
- the assessment of trauma (both man made and natural) and emotional injury including but not limited to posttraumatic stress disorder;
- the diagnosis and treatment of substance abuse;
- psychopharmacology;
- forensic child and adolescent psychiatry, including the evaluation and treatment of sexually and physically abused children as well as custody evaluations and other types of traumatic injury;
- mental capacity evaluations for civil and criminal matters including conservatorships, testamentary capacity and “undue influence” and various capacities of criminal defendants;
- psychological testing and assessment;
- the acute treatment (including inpatient) of major mental disorders as well as psychiatric emergencies;
- professional ethics and boundary violations;
- assessing the emotional consequences of employment based sexual, gender, ethnic and age discrimination as well as wrongful termination;
- toxic torts – assessing the emotional consequences of exposure to potentially toxic substances including both natural and man made environmental hazards such as water contamination, pollution and mold infestation;
- fear of cancer;
- the intentional infliction of emotional distress;
- emotional stress secondary to product liability claims;
- closed head and traumatic brain injuries;
- autism spectrum disorders;
- dual diagnosis cases – the intersection of psychiatric disorders and substance use disorders;
- adult and child neurocognitive assessments; and
- mass torts – assessing psychological injury claims within populations of individuals exposed to the same stressful events or circumstances.
Mass Torts Assessment
We have particular interest in and experience with mass tort complaints by groups of individuals impacted by the same event or circumstances. The assessment of mass tort claims demands an integrated team approach in order to complete initial screenings and multiple individual forensic evaluations in a careful, timely and cost effective manner. We have experience with managing group claims of emotional damages and have developed a methodology for assessing populations of individual litigants.
Forensic Neuropsychology & Pediatric Neuropsychology
Our forensic neuropsychologists are highly trained, skilled and broadly experienced in the administration and interpretation of the most widely accepted child, adolescent and adult neurocognitive and personality assessment instruments. They are experienced with assessing forensic as well as clinical populations. Virtually every forensic examination performed by an fpamed expert (with the obvious exception of testamentary capacity consultations in will contests) includes a full psychological testing assessment employing a battery of carefully chosen personality and/or neurocognitive instruments, followed by a detailed analysis of all psychological test data generated by experts from both sides, as well as by the treating psychologist.
Individual Bios & CVs
To review a detailed description of each fpamed expert’s education, training and areas of special interest and expertise, visit Our Team page or click on the button below. Then please contact us with your questions – no question is too basic or unimportant. We all enjoy teaching and will be happy to chat with you about your case.
Ethics
We welcome inquiries from both sides of the civil and criminal bar. We pride ourselves in reaching independent conclusions. Our approach is to carefully assess all available data in order to develop evidence based opinions about diagnosis, prognosis and causation. We strive to recognize and manage our own biases when and if they occur, in order to minimize their effect upon our objectivity. We offer opinions that reflect what we honestly believe the scientific evidence demonstrates, regardless of whether it supports a particular case theory. We believe that in the end all sides are best served by honest and truthful expert opinion. Thus, our goal is to practice forensic psychiatry and psychology with maximum integrity and in accordance with the highest ethical standards of our two professions.
