The learned treatise approach to challenging the psychiatric expert witness in civil commitment proceedings was investigated in the present study. An Ad Litem's Handbook, modeled after Ziskin (1975), was written and distributed to a group of attorneys who also received workshop training in aggressively defending the proposed patients at civil commitment hearings. TheseTRAINED attorneys were compared with control groups of attorneys not receiving the training intervention in terms of trial tactics, cross-examination profiles, and other courtroom behaviors in order to assess the impact of such training and the impact of the learned treatise approach in civil commitment hearings. Results indicated that, in spite of explicit endorsement of such tactics by the court,TRAINED attorneys did not alter their courtroom behaviors significantly in directions suggested by the special training and, like their untrained counterparts, did not aggressively challenge the psychiatric expert whose testimony argued for commitment of their clients.