For Attorneys and Institutions
Forensic Psychiatry and Expert Witness Services
I provide independent forensic psychiatric evaluation, record review, and expert testimony in criminal, civil, and administrative matters throughout California. My work combines board-certified clinical psychiatry with a doctorate in neuroscience, which is often decisive in cases that turn on psychosis, mood disorders, medication effects, or neuropsychiatric disease.
Types of matters
Criminal responsibility and mental state at time of offense
Evaluation of insanity, automatism, diminished actuality, and intoxication questions, including the differentiation of substance effects from an underlying psychiatric illness.
Competency and capacity
Assessment of competence to stand trial, testamentary and decisional capacity, and capacity to consent to or refuse treatment.
Medical necessity and level of care
Opinions for hospital systems and payors on whether psychiatric admission, continued stay, or a given level of care was medically necessary. I have opined on more than one hundred such cases.
Psychiatric malpractice and standard of care
Review of prescribing practices, diagnostic reasoning, suicide risk assessment, and treatment decisions in negligence and wrongful death matters.
Personal injury and workers' compensation
Qualified Medical Evaluator (QME) and Independent Medical Evaluator (IME) examinations addressing causation, apportionment, impairment, and treatment need.
Neuropsychiatric and complex diagnostic questions
Matters involving psychosis, bipolar disorder, autism, functional neurological disorder, dementia, medication-induced movement disorders, and adverse drug effects.
Qualifications
- Board certified in Psychiatry by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology
- M.D. and Ph.D. in neuroscience, with an academic background in molecular and computational neuroscience
- California Qualified Medical Evaluator (QME) and Independent Medical Evaluator since 2014
- Forensic consulting expert since 2012, retained by both plaintiff and defense counsel
- American Neuropsychiatric Association: Standards & Ethics Committee and Forensics Special Interest Group
- Extensive deposition and trial testimony experience
How a referral works
- 1.Conflict check and a brief call to review the legal question, jurisdiction, and timeline.
- 2.Retention agreement, followed by review of the medical, psychiatric, and legal record.
- 3.Examination of the litigant when the referral question requires one, in person or by secure video.
- 4.Preliminary verbal impressions to counsel before any written product is generated.
- 5.Written report addressing the specific legal standard at issue.
- 6.Deposition and trial testimony as needed.
Inquiries from counsel
Please include the jurisdiction, the parties, the legal question, and the key dates so that a conflict check can be completed promptly. Forensic work is billed at an hourly rate with a retainer; rates are provided on request.
Phone: 310-744-1250
Email: ewexler@modernbrains.com
2730 Wilshire Blvd, Suite 325, Santa Monica, CA 90403