Assessing Civil Competency: What Are the Mental Capacity Standards in Civil Litigation?
Civil competency is an area that gets significantly less attention than competency in criminal proceedings. It’s definitely not a topic that you are going to see on Law & Order anytime soon. We regularly get questions about civil competency and the mental...
Diminished Capacity: What Does It Mean and How Do You Evaluate it?
The term “diminished capacity” occasionally comes up in the world of forensic psychology. It doesn’t get as much attention as not guilty by reason of insanity (NGRI), but it’s still an important psycho-legal construct that forensic psychologists can evaluate for....
Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity vs. Incompetent to Stand Trial: What’s the Difference Between Them?
The terms insanity and competency are two legal terms that come up often in the criminal justice system. Most people get the two terms mixed up and don’t know the differences between them. We’ve already talked about Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity (NGRI) and...
Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity: Evaluating Criminal Responsibility at The Time of the Offense
What does it mean when a defendant pleads, Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity (NGRI)? You’ve probably heard the term “insanity” thrown around but most people don’t know the legal criteria for an NGRI plea. “Insanity” is a legal term rather than a medical or...
Competency to Stand Trial: An Overview of the Legal Guidelines for Evaluating Competency
If you’ve watched enough Law and Order, you’ve probably heard the term “Incompetent to Stand Trial (IST)” or competency to stand trial. We get a lot of questions from attorneys asking us if their clients are competent to stand trial. The rules and laws surrounding...About
I am a licensed psychologist (PSY 29643) specializing in neuropsychological and forensic evaluations. I have 10 years of education and training in clinical psychology and neuropsychology and extensive experience evaluating adults and adolescents for psychological and neuropsychological conditions.