Services

Forensic Evaluations

Dr. Walters provides a variety of psycho-legal evaluations, which are a type of psychological evaluation designed to answer a specific psycho-legal question(s) that can assist your attorney in making the most effective and informed legal decisions for your case. The comprehensive nature of forensic evaluations can allow the court to take into consideration extenuating and mitigating circumstances that may otherwise not be identified and highlighted for the court when taking into consideration a verdict, and if necessary, sentencing.  

If you and your attorney would like to consult with Dr. Walters about whether a forensic evaluation can meet your needs, you can call her for a free consultation. 

Types of Forensic Evaluations Offered: 

• Comprehensive Psychological Evaluation (Mitigation or Pre-Sentencing Evaluation)  This is one of the most popular types of forensic evaluations Dr. Walters conducts. Depending upon the referral question, this type of evaluation may include the assessment of the client’s memory, mood, personality, social/emotional/behavior issues, trauma history, intelligence, suicidal/homicidal ideation, malingering, etc. These evaluations are helpful to determine if there is a mental health diagnosis, substance abuse history, and/or cognitive impairment.  Evaluation results are often useful to provide information on mitigating factors or extenuating circumstances and can be invaluable in aiding an attorney’s legal strategy or helping the trier of fact (the judge or jury) in their decision making. 

• Diversion Court Suitability Evaluation - This type of evaluation can determine if a person meets the required criteria to attend a diversion program, such as drug and alcohol court, Veteran’s Affairs (VA) court, and mental health court. 

• Psycho-Diagnostic Evaluation - This type of evaluation is best suited for situations in which there is a question of a specific diagnosis. 

• Substance Use Evaluation - This type of evaluation is best suited for individuals facing drug charges, including possession, intent to distribute, or DUI/DWI charges.

• Anger/ Violence Evaluation - This type of evaluation is best suited for individuals facing intimate partner violence, domestic violence, or assault charges. 

• Risk Assessment Evaluation - This type of evaluation is useful to determine a person’s risk of committing a future crime, such as physical violence, sexual violence, or non-violent crimes. There are a variety of factors that can increase or decrease a person’s risk, with many being dynamic (a factor that can change, such as mental health), which is why risk assessments are most predictive for short-term behaviors (>1 year). This type of evaluation may be most helpful to individuals who are charged with committing a serious, violent crime or sexual offense. 

• Threat Assessment Evaluation - These types of evaluations are used by individuals or companies who suspect a person or employee has ill intent and may constitute a danger to a person or a business. In addition to assessing the likelihood of a person committing a bad act, such as violence, malicious business practices, etc., these types of evaluations provide key recommendations to actively help reduce the threat risk.

• Malingering Evaluation - This type of assessment is helpful when doubts are raised about the authenticity of a client’s emotional or cognitive symptoms, or mental health disorder. 

• Capacity for Guardianship Evaluation - This type of evaluation assesses cognitive functioning and functional abilities to determine a client’s capacity. 

• Competency to Stand Trial Evaluation - This type of evaluation is best suited for when there is a question of whether the individual can understand the legal system, their options, or has cognitive issues inhibiting their ability to understand court proceedings. 

• Insanity Evaluation - This type of evaluation helps to answer the legal questions surrounding if a person was mentally insane at the time they committed a crime. These evaluations seek to answer three broad questions: at the time of the crime did the defendant suffer from any mental disease or defect, were they unable to control their actions, and were unable to differentiate right from wrong. Insanity defenses are incredibly rare and require a trained evaluator, such as Dr. Walters, to not only understand a client’s mental health history, but also the legal requirements of an insanity defense. 

• Suitability Evaluations for First Responders (Law Enforcement, Firefighting, EMT, Dispatching, etc.) - This type of evaluation helps city, county, state, and federal departments in choosing the best job candidates that are resilient and can withstand known occupational stresses, such as vicarious trauma, and can reduce high turnover rates. 

• Fitness for Duty Evaluations - This type of evaluation is helpful to ensure a first responder is able to return to their job and fully perform all of their duties, after being on leave. For example, a law enforcement officer who discharges their weapon in the line of duty may be required to have a fitness for duty evaluation prior to being allowed to reengage in fieldwork.  

Differences in Forensic Evaluators vs Traditional Mental Health Clinicians

In a traditional therapy setting a therapist must put their patient’s needs first and may act as an advocate to aid in the process of a person making progress towards an agreed upon goal, such as reducing the intensity and frequency of depression symptoms. Except for in specific exceptions, confidentiality is kept between the therapist and the patient. 

A forensic psychologist’s role is very different than a therapists role, in that they must remain unbiased and present only their opinions and facts about a specific psycho-legal question. Information may or may not remain confidential depending on who requests the information and how it is used. Additionally, information cannot be cherry-picked as to what is included in a report or not, as the goal for the forensic psychologist is not to make a person look a certain way, but to provide honest answers to help the courts to come to an informed decision. 

The Evaluation Process

Depending upon the psycho-legal referral question, the elements involved in the forensic evaluation may vary. Typically an evaluation will include a comprehensive interview where you will be asked questions about your childhood, instances of abuse or trauma, education, social adjustment, relationships, work history, medical history, psychological history, and legal issues. Dr. Walters may also use a variety of measures to assess areas that pertain to your legal concern (e.g., IQ, memory, personality, risk). She will review the documents you provide and integrate all this information into a report. 

The time required to complete an evaluation will depend upon a number of factors, including the nature and complexity of the psycho-legal referral question. Dr. Walters will work as quickly as possible to meet your desired timeline. To expedite the process, you can help with being flexible with your appointment times, attending all scheduled appointments, providing all requested documents, and responding promptly to emails or phone calls. 

Once your evaluation is complete, Dr. Walters will discuss with you and/or your attorney if a comprehensive report would be beneficial, and if so, a report will be written. Afterwards, Dr. Walters will conduct a feedback/case consultation session with you and/or your attorney to discuss the results. The report will include client history, results of the assessment measures, data, and diagnosis(es), how this information may be relevant to your current legal proceedings, and relevant recommendations. 

A poorly written report can not only be difficult to understand and unhelpful, but may negatively impact your case. Reports should be able to hold up to scrutiny and demonstrate the unbiased and professional opinions of the evaluator, so that the reader has confidence in the findings. This is why Dr. Walters reports are written so that both professionals (lawyers, judges, psychiatrists) and lay-persons can understand not only the results and recommendations but how she came to her conclusions. 

Cost

Dr. Walters will tailor the forensic evaluation to meet your unique needs and legal question at hand, therefore the assessment can vary in cost. Depending upon the complexity and scope, a forensic evaluation can range from $4,000 to $10,000 or more. Dr. Walters will provide you with her rates prior to starting the assessment, and will try and work within your budget. Unfortunately, forensic evaluations with the specific goal of answering a psycho-legal question or to be presented in court are NOT eligible to be covered by health insurance nor are these types of evaluations reimbursable by an insurance provider.

What you can expect from Dr. Walters

• Unbiased results – Dr. Walters is a licensed clinical forensic psychologist. To provide any diagnosis she relies on multiple sources of information (interview, test results, observations, historical records, collateral interviews, etc.) to make a determination based on the current criteria required for such a disorder, as listed in the most current edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Her conclusions are independent and based on the information provided at the time of the evaluation. Dr. Walters does not guarantee any diagnosis, test result, opinion, or case outcome. 

• Individualized Attention – Dr. Walters will spend a great deal of time dedicated to understanding you and your case. She will customize the evaluation process, starting with the tests administered, case specific research, and a personalized report/recommendations. 

• Qualified Professional Insights - Unlike other forensic evaluators or testing centers which often rely on a number of professionals to complete an evaluation, Dr. Walters will provide all forensic psychological evaluation services herself, which allows her a better understanding of both you and your case. Further, her training and experience in forensic matters uniquely qualify her to provide relevant, helpful opinions and recommendations those without forensic practice often lack. 

Threat assessment is a process that is used to evaluate the potential risks to the safety and security of a person or entity (like a business). The goal of threat assessment is to determine the credibility and seriousness of a potential threat, and the likelihood of harm occurring. This process involves assessing the intentions of people who could pose a threat, how they might cause harm, and their ability and motivation to carry out the task, and can be useful in a variety of settings, including cases of stalking, issues with students and staff at schools, and with employees in businesses. 

Threat prevention consists of providing education to individuals and businesses to reduce their risk of being harmed. Dr. Walters offers training and education on risk reduction specific to each individual case. Examples of harm prevention include best strategies for terminating employees or safety precautions for tenants and landlords. 

Expert witness testimony can be vital in conveying the facts of your case to the trier of fact (the judge or jury) in your case. Not only does an expert need to be knowledgeable, unbiased, and cool under pressure, they need to be personable, professional, and able to clearly articulate their opinions and information without boring or alienating the jury. 

Dr. Walters can provide expert testimony on two fronts: on your case and/or provide psychoeducation about a particular topic. She has published book chapters and scholarly articles on a number of forensic topics, such as personality disorders, sexual deviancy, violent offenses, conducted forensic research, and taught college classes on forensic psychology. She views providing testimony as another form of education and will present unbiased and fact based opinions and research to help your case. 

Dr. Walters is knowledgeable about a number of psycho-legal topics which may be helpful to your case. A published author, professor, and clinical psychologist, she can help you find research and statistics that are relevant to your case and can strengthen your case. 

Presentations and trainings on a variety of different topics can be customized to meet your needs. Examples of topics include: The lawyer’s guide to understanding psychological evaluations and how to interpret results, Reducing risk: How to properly terminate an employee, Understanding and dealing with individuals with personality disorders, Understanding psychopathy, Understanding and coping with trauma, Mindfulness and stress reduction. 

Dr. Walters is available for both in-person and virtual presentations and trainings for both large and small audiences. 

Dr. Walters is happy to work with members of the press to help advance the understanding of forensic topics. Through audio/visual interviews or written content, she can provide information and analysis on complex topics or trending cases in the news and on social media. 

She is also available to consult on film and television projects which require knowledge of forensic psychology.