Ethical considerations in medicolegal evaluation of neurologic injury and impairment following acquired brain injury

Specific training for medicolegal evaluation of persons with neurologic inj ury or impairment is not always obtained. Most physicians and psychologists acknowledge that they receive insufficient formal training or education wi th regard to identifying and coping with the various potential ethical conf licts that can arise in this arena. However, increasing guidelines are bein g issued for managing the disparities between conflicting interests and eth ics for distinctly different roles of independent examiner/expert witness v ersus treating clinician. In the current paper, relevant ethical issues are reviewed in order to illustrate ethical conduct as it relates to many comm on aspects of medicolegal situations. Although some of the current dilemmas described are unique to the interaction of the American legal and health c are systems, most have international relevance. Finally recommendations are provided toward the goal of promoting standardization of objective and eth ical conduct in medical and psychological practice.