Experts

  • Mark I. Levy, MD, DLFAPA
    Medical Director, Forensic Psychiatrist, Diplomate of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology in Adult and Forensic Psychiatry, Distinguished Life Fellow American Psychiatric Association
  • Sarah A. Hall, PhD
    Adult, Child & Adolescent Forensic Neuropsychologist.
  • David Y. Kan, MD
    Forensic Psychiatrist, Addiction Medicine & Substance Abuse Specialist, Diplomate of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology in Adult and Forensic Psychiatry.
  • Anlee Kuo, MD, JD
    Child and Adolescent Forensic Psychiatrist, Diplomate of the American Board of Psychiatry & Neurology in Adult, Child, Adolescent & Forensic Psychiatry.
  • Ronald Roberts, PhD
    Board Certified in Forensic Psychology, American Board of Professional Psychology, American College of Law and Psychology
  • Charles Saldanha, MD
    Forensic Psychiatrist, Acute Care and Emergency Psychiatry, Diplomate of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology in Adult and Forensic Psychiatry.

Proximate Cause

Related: Causation , Law of Experts

Forensic psychiatrists and all testifying physicians are expected to offer opinioins in civil matters to the standard of "reasonable medical certainty" (or "reasonable medical probability" in California). However, the legal definition of causation (proximate cause) and the notion of causation from the perspective of behavioral science is not the same and sometimes it actually diverges This article attempts to explain the differences, explicate the dilemma and point out some of the pitfalls into which a medical expert may fall when testifying about legal causation.

Download proximate_causation.pdf