The Different Duties and Responsibilities of Clinical and Forensic Psychologists in Legal Proceedings

In lieu of an abstract, below is the essay's first paragraph. Clinicians and forensic psychologists are two types of psychologists who are often required to appear as witnesses in court proceedings. Their roles, duties, and responsibilities in legal issues arc surprisingly different, but it is possible for them to overlap. It is important for psychologists to recognize both the obligations and limitations of their responsibilities when testifying. An important and often unclear question that generally arises is: how can psychologists best fulfill their legal and ethical duties to their clients? This article is available in Undergraduate Review: a Journal of Undergraduate Student Research: http://fisherpub.sjfc.edu/ur/vol5/ iss1/4 The Different Duties and Responsibilities of Clinical and Forensic Psychologists in Legal Proceedings by Denise R. Hugaboom Clinicians and forensic psychologists are two types of psychologists who are often required to appear as witnesses in court proceedings. Their roles, duties, and responsibilities in legal issues arc surprisingly different, but it is possible for them to overlap. It is important for psychologists to recogrnze both the obligations and limitations of their responsibilities when testifying. An important and often unclear question that generally arises is: how can psychologists best fulfill their legal and ethical duties to their clients? Clinical psychologists play an important role in legal issues regarding their clients. Clinicians may be asked to submit records to insurance companies, report suspected incidents of child abuse, and testify on behalf of or against their clients in a court of law. Unfortunately, when asked or required to participate in legal proceedings of any sort, clinicians are faced with indistinct guidelines that blur between legal and ethical requirements. One of the primary requirements of a practicing clinician is to maintain confidentiality with a client (American Psychological Association 1992). Once a client discloses private infonnation to a therapist in an environment in which it is expected that the information will not ordinarily be disclosed to third parties, it becomes confidential (Smith-Bell & Winslade, 1994). The laws regarding confidentiality and privacy have changed over time. The constitutional right to privacy was first recognized by the Supreme Court in Griswold v. Connecticut, ( 1965) and in Eisenstad/t v. Barrd (1972). However, the constitutional rights to privacy 26 were restricted in Whalen v. Roe (1976). In this case, the Court ruled that a patient does not have a constitutional right to informational privacy of communications or records generated in the course of medical treatment when the records are adequately protected from unauthorized disclosure (Smith-Bell & Winslade, 1994). There are only I 0 states which have recognized a constitutionally based psychotherapistpatient privilege for psychotherapeutic communications, and the decisions that were made in those states are now at least 15 to 20 years old (Smith-Bell & Winslade, 1994, citing Smith, 1980, citing Bremer v. State, 1973). It is reassuring to know that with these ambiguous lines that border legal rights and ethical requirements, there are some particular cases in which the decision between right and wrong is defined as clearly as black and white. There are times when legally and ethically, a clinician must break confidentiality. Corey (2001) lays out several circumstances in which counselors must legally report certain information. Counselors are required to break confidentiality and report or even testify when clients pose a danger to themselves or others, and when a counselor believes that a minor (a person under the age of 16) is a victim of rape, incest, or abuse. They are also required to release their records to a third party upon request of the client. Finally, therapists must release certain information if it becomes an issue in court action. Besides these specific situations, a clinical therapist is legally required to testify to all other psychotherapeutic communications unless that material has the status of being privileged. Refusal to do so m