Abstract
ABSTRACT Many jurisdictions in the US allow persons who have experienced “pain and suffering” to claim compensation from the perpetrators of harm, even when the harm is not a crime. As part of this legal process, the jury, often with the assistance of expert opinion testimony, considers what just compensation would return the plaintiff to the equivalent of his or her condition before the claimed harmful event. The legal rules of the jurisdiction in which the case takes place may require that the forensic examiner consider the plaintiff's functioning before the claimed event, the severity of distress likely to be engendered by the event, areas of resiliency and impairment in the plaintiff s functioning after the event, the likely cause of impairments in the plaintiff's psychological functioning, and the plaintiff's likely future status and need for care to ameliorate the impairments caused by the defendant. This paper briefly reviews the legal bases of such examinations, presents a disguised report of a sample examination, and discusses the ways in which the empirical literature contributes to the examination process and expert witness testimony.
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