Overview of medico-legal services
Clinical Psychology Associates has a dedicated team of clinical psychologists who provide medico-legal assessments, reports and expert witness testimony throughout the UK. We also deliver effective psychological treatment when this is recommended as part of a medico-legal process.
The instructions we receive are wide in scope and encompass most areas of law, including criminal, personal injury, employment, family and immigration.
We recognise that it is often necessary to instruct a relevant expert at short notice and request delivery of a comprehensive medico-legal report within a very restrictive time frame. We therefore provide a rapid and responsive medico-legal service in which our clinical psychologists are flexible in terms of both accommodating deadlines and appearing at hearings.
Overall, the work undertaken by our team of clinical psychologists is approximately equal in terms of the ratios of instructions from parties acting for the prosecution and defence in criminal cases, and for the claimant and defendant in civil cases. We also receive single and joint instructions. In every case, the requirements of the instructing party are matched to the clinical psychologist with the most relevant expertise.
All our clinical psychologists providing medico-legal services are trained expert witnesses who are chartered by the British Psychological Society and registered with relevant organisations such as the UK Register of Expert Witnesses. The opinions they provide are based on a combination of highly skilled clinical interviewing and standardised psychometric assessment measures that are widely recognised and have proven validity and reliability.
We conduct medico-legal assessments for law firms of every type and scale, occupational health companies, HR departments, government agencies, social services departments and private individuals.
For further information on the types of medico-legal work we most regularly undertake – with examples of instructions we have previously received – please use the links on the left-hand side of this page.