Date	Title
March 2013	Avoiding (or Fixing) Problems With Lawyers and Courts Simple prevention and fixes for common problems in forensic practice
Nov. 2012	How Lawyers View Psychiatric Experts With Skip Simpson, J.D. Just what the title implies.
July 2012	Doing Forensic Work III: Marketing Your Practice Ethical and effective practice marketing
May 2012	Doing Forensic Work II: Fees, Billing and Collections More nuts & bolts of forensic practice
Mar. 2012	Doing Forensic Work, I: Starting the Case Nuts & bolts of forensic practice
Dec. 2011	Psychiatric Aspects of Criminal Responsibility: Insanity and Mitigation Maureen Burrows, M.D., M.P.H. & William H. Reid, M.D., M.P.H. Roles of forensic experts in criminal case mitigation
Sept. 2011	Writing Reports for Lawyers and Courts Forensic report-writing for non-forensic professionals
May 2011	So They Want You to Be Their Medical Director Considerations about moving from clinician into mental health administration
Mar. 2011	Forensic Psychiatry in the People's Republic of China Beilin Gao, M.D., Ph.D., William H. Reid, M.D., M.P.H., Jesse Li Current and past forensic procedures, including recent changes, as described by a Chinese leader in the field.
Sept. 2010	Book Review: The American Psychiatric Publishing Textbook of Forensic Psychiatry (and Study Guide) A detailed look at an important new book in forensic psychiatry
Jul. 2010	When Lawyers Call Clinicians Caveats and suggestions about dealing with calls & requests from attorneys
Mar. 2010	Preventing Suicide Suicide prevention, expanded from a White Paper delivered in Washington, DC, April, 2010
Jan. 2010	Important New Books in Forensic Psychiatry Correctional psychiatry, violence, children, testimony, trial consultation
Nov. 2009	Substituted Decision Making: Elder Guardianship & Conservatorship Evaluations Martha E. Leatherman, M.D. & Katherine E. Goethe, Ph.D. Capacity evaluations, guardianship evaluations, in geriatric patients & evaluees
May 2009	Borderline Personality Disorder and Borderline Traits in Forensic Psychiatry Clinical complications, competency, responsibility, intent, malpractice litigation, evaluation
Mar 2009	Prognosis After Suicide Attempt: Standard of Care and the Consequences of not Meeting It. Statistical and clinical follow-up of persons who survive suicide attempts. Suicide risk assessment after an attempt or other self-injury.
May 2008	Assaults Against Psychiatrists and Other Mental Health Professionals Risk, reducing risk, generic risk in clinical & nonclinical settings, and risk associated with interpersonal situations, patient perceptions, and patient idiosyncrasies
Mar 2008	The Treatment-Forensic Interface Conflict of interest and other considerations when mixing patient care & treatment with forensic or expert roles
Jan 2008	A Few New Books Reviews of new books on ethics, forensic evaluations, malingering, and testifying in court
Nov 2007	Practicing Well: Suicide Risk and Suicide Prevention Clinical suggestions and case examples regarding assessing and managing patients' suicide potential
July 2007	Personality Disorders and Violence Potential with Stephen A. Thorne, Ph.D. A new typology of violence, violent behaviors and risk assessment associated with personality disorders, with case examples
May 2007	Judges' Impressions of Foreign-Trained Psychiatric Expert Witnesses with Suresh Durgam, M.D. Survey of judges about jury reactions to testifying experts from different countries and racial & cultural backgrounds
Mar 2007	Firearms Possession by Mentally Ill Persons by Joseph R. Simpson, M.D., Ph.D. Overview, with California examples.
Jan 2007	Evaluating and Treating Disabled or Impaired Colleagues Processes and procedures for working with a physician or other professional colleague whose psychiatric disability or impairment may affect his/her ability to practice safely and competently.
Nov 2006	Assessing Civil Competence by Brian Crowley, MD Many people think that mental illness routinely renders patients incompetent to do many things. Dr. Brian Crowley attacks that myth with assessment principles and case examples.
Sep 2006	Treating Antisocial Syndromes with Stephen A. Thorne, Ph.D. Dr. Stephen Thorne joins me in discussing differential diagnosis of antisocial disorders and behaviors, choosing treatment objectives, and modern approaches to "what works," including awareness of dynamic, criminogenic, and non-criminogenic variables.
May 2006	When Clinicians Must Testify in Court Understanding and preparing to testify about a patient.
Mar 2006	Forensic Psychiatry Books A few books, new & older, short & long.
Jan 2006	Forensic Practice: A Day in the Life Day-to-day activities in forensic practice
Nov 2005	Forensic Aspects of e-Therapy by Patricia Recupero, JD, MD, and Samara E. Rainey Overview of techniques and issues related to Internet-based therapy and patient communication, including verifying identification & credentials, ethics, responsibilities, security, privacy & confidentiality, boundaries, etc.
Mar 2005	Delusional Disorder and the Law Delusions of various types, risk, treatment, erotomania, stalking, criminal responsibility, trial competency.
Jan 2005	Contracting for Safety Redux Update on the uses and pitfalls of so-called "no-suicide contracts," "contract for safety," or "no-harm contracts."
Nov 2004	Two Cases From the Forensic Files Discussions of two forensic psychiatry cases, one involving a jail inmate death, the other alleging emotional damage and questionable behavior by a psychiatrist.
July 2004	Organization Liability: Beyond Respondeat Superior Risk management in mental health facilities and other clinical organizations, from a legal vulnerability viewpoint.
May 2004	Avoiding the Malpractice Snare: Documenting Suicide Risk Assessment (Guest Column) by Skip Simpson, JD, and Michael Stacy, JD Advice and discussion about assessing suicidal patients and documentation of the results, including collateral information, reliability, second opinions, consultation, and no-harm contracts, from two attorneys who practice primarily as plaintiffs' lawyers.
Mar 2004	International Medical Graduates as Forensic Experts with co-author Suresh K. Durgam, M.D. Discussion of some factors and perceptions that may limit expert witness opportunities for psychiatrists who received their medical training outside the U.S. or Canada.
Jan 2004	Killing Family Members: Mental Illness, Victim Risk, and Culpability Lethal violence is unusual among persons with severe and chronic mental illness, but it happens. When it does, the victim is likely to be a member of the patient's immediate family. This column discusses several cases in which family members became victims of violence related to psychosis, morbid depression, or paranoia with intractable narcissistic loss.
Nov 2003	Juveniles Standing Trial: Waiver to Adult Court (Guest Column) by Diane Schetky, M.D., forensic child psychiatrist.
Sept 2003	Expert Evaluation, Controversial Cases, and the Media Discussion related to the case and criminal trials of Vincente Gigante.
July 2003	Forensic Use & Abuse of Psychological Tests: Multiscale Inventories (Guest Column) by Richard Rogers, Ph.D.
May 2003	Back to Basics: Law and Mental Health Basic U.S. jurisprudence and the interface of clinical work and the law.
Mar 2003	Why Nonforensic Clinicians Should Decline Forensic Referrals Pitfalls in becoming an expert witness or consultant without forensic training and experience.
Jan 2003	Risk Assessment, Prediction, and Foreseeability Important principles which separate these three concepts, and recommendations for their use. (Note the typographical error: "RRAZOR" should be "RRASOR")
Nov 2002	Ethics and Forensic Work This column addresses both "formal" professional ethics codes and less formal (often generic) ethics, such as those suggested by philosophical or societal moral concepts. Focuses on the former.
Sept 2002	Sexual Predator Evaluations & Commitments Understanding highly specialized assessments for sexual predator commitments.
July 2002	Forensic Work by Nonforensic Clinicians, III: Courts and Trials Basic introduction to principles and procedures.
May 2002	Forensic Work by Nonforensic Clinicians, II: Reports and Depositions Basic introduction to principles and procedures.
Mar 2002	Forensic Work by Nonforensic Clinicians, I: Attorney Relationships and Initial Tasks Basic introduction to principles and procedures.
Jan 2002	Evaluations in Jails and Prisons Consultations in jails, prisons, and forensic hospitals, including procedures and safety.
Nov 2001	Psychiatric/Psychological Aspects of Terrorism Terrorism and terror-violence vary from type to type and event to event. Although everyone has a personality, and personality is important in behavior, there is no archetypal terrorist personality, and no mental illness predisposes one to what most people call terrorism.
Sep 2001	False Allegations (guest column) by Richard C.W. Hall, M.D., forensic psychiatrist, and Ryan C.W. Hall
July 2001	Competence (competency) to Consent The elements of consent, and a number of misunderstandings about the criteria for consent or refusal of medical procedures.
May 2001	Psychiatry and the Death Penalty Three aspects of the death penalty that involve mental health professionals: The ethics of psychiatrists' and other clinicians' participating in the sentencing process, the probability of future violence in the context of sentencing process, and sentencing and executing persons with mental retardation. (Note that this column was written before the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that execution of mentally retarded persons is unconstitutional.)
Mar 2001	Pregnant Patients' Refusing Medical Care Case examples of issues in their right to refuse care when refusal may injure their babies.
Jan 2001	Antisocial Personality, Psychopathy, and Forensic Psychiatry Diagnosis, assessment, forensic relevance, and treatment of antisocial personality Disorder (APD) and its more severe subtype, psychopathy.
Nov 2000	Defending Suicide-Related Malpractice Cases - A Lawyer's Perspective (guest column) by David T. Schultz, malpractice attorney
Sep 2000	Offenders with Special Needs Working with patients in prisons and jails.
July 2000	Malingering Recognizing malingered psychiatric and neuropsychiatric symptoms.
May 2000	The Insanity Defense: Mad, Bad, or Both? The "insanity defense" is one of the most misunderstood aspects of forensic psychiatry. This column offers some case examples that explore some of the myths about mentally ill people who are tried for criminal offenses. (Note an error in the text: comments about the "Hillside Strangler" should instead refer to the "Boston Strangler.")
Mar 2000	Staying Ethical Under Pressure This column focuses on a few ethical issues, some fairly subtle, that can arise when working with attorneys as an expert withness.
Jan 2000	Whom Do You Trust? Patient Care and Professional Relationships Many professional (e.g., "co-treatment") relationships create a duty of some sort, and thus some potential for liability. Much of this column is about what you should know or do with respect to the other professionals with whom you work.
Nov 1999	Being Sued What to expect if one is sued for malpractice.
Sep 1999	Impaired Colleagues Recognizing, and properly dealing with, impaired professional colleagues.
July 1999	Top 19 Things to Remember When Working With Lawyers & Courts General principles and suggestions for forensic practice.
May 1999	Boundary Issues & Violations Sexual boundary violations and issues, red flags, reporting, nonsexual bounsary issues.
Mar 1999	Accidents, Suicide and Insurance I was going to call this column "Accidental Death by Putting a Loaded Gun to One's Head and Pulling the Trigger," but the editor probably wouldn't have approved.
Nov 1998	Criminal Defendant Competence & Responsibility This column discusses evaluations of criminal responsibility and competence to stand trial, including some general principles and a brief description of the determination processes themselves.
Sep 1998	No-Suicide/Violence "Contracts" This column discusses the reliability of patients' non-suicide or non-violence/no-harm "contracts" ("contract for safety"), in the context of preventing suicide or decreasing danger to others.
July 1998	Myths About Violent Sexual Predators & Legislation A discussion of recent legislation affecting the treatment and incarceration of some sex offenders.
May 1998	Standard of Care & Patient Need This column reflects on psychiatrists' ability to treat inpatients adequately given payers' expectations of very short hospital stays.
Mar 1998	Treating Clinicians & Expert Testimony Civil and criminal attorneys often refer their clients to psychiatrists or counselors for "treatment" in anticipation of a later report or expert testimony. They may also seek out professionals who have treated the client earlier to help with the legal case. This column highlights the inadvisability -- and sometimes impropriety -- of a treating clinician's becoming a forensic consultant or expert in the same case.