Psychiatric Expert Witness Evaluation

Psychiatric expert witnesses can be vetted and evaluated in the same manner as any expert witness. An attorney can check work references, perform a Lexis search and speak to other attorneys who have previously engaged the expert in question. Going a bit further, an attorney can also use Daubert Tracker, which is a site purposely designed to track cases that involve the admissibility of expert testimony. Attorneys can enter an expert's name and search all cases, if any, where that expert's ability to testify was challenged before a court and whether that challenge was successful.

Additionally, when evaluating a psychiatric expert witness, or any medical expert, an attorney might want to turn to HealthGrades. HealthGrades is a physician evaluation website that provides a great deal of information on a doctor, including board certifications, disciplinary actions, patient evaluations and education and training. Its use is a great way to confirm a medical expert's credentials.

Finally, anyone practicing in medical litigation of any specialty should check out the book, How Attorneys Can Best Utilize Their Medical Expert Witness: A Medical Expert's Perspective. Unlike most resources however, this one is written by a top medical expert and doctor, not an attorney. The author, Dr Vernon Neppe MD, PhD is a leading neuropsychiatrist/behavioral neurologist, and psychopharmacologist. He also has extensive experience as a forensic psychiatrist/forensic neuropsychiatrist. 

Many expert witness referral firms now use these tools and many others before presenting an expert, but you may also want to use the most relevant tools yourself to minimize unpleasant last-minute surprises.