As an elder law or probate attorney, you are often called upon to assist with issues relating to competence or legal capacity.
There may be instances when you wonder if a client has the ability to make decisions that are in his or her best interest. Your involvement may be initiated at the request of concerned family members, friends, or caretakers who question an elderly person’s ability to manage self-care and finances. On the rare occasion, you may receive inquiries from individuals seeking counsel in a proactive effort to protect their estate from future challenges.
In your elder law practice, you may encounter concerns around legal capacity in the context of guardianship, conservatorship, and will contest proceedings. In the midst of meeting with the parties, drawing up documents, gathering medical records, and encountering the strong emotions engendered by these sensitive issues, chances are you are mulling over the best strategy to obtain clarification of your client’s mental status. When you decide that formal psychological evaluation of competence will be the best approach, finding a qualified psychologist who is experienced in performing competency evaluations can be challenging.
Sound familiar?
How We Can Help You…
At the Center for Forensic & Clinical Psychology, our highly qualified staff of psychologists and clinical associates can relieve that challenging aspect of your practice. We recognize that your priority is to provide the very best legal service to your clients and our commitment is to support you in that effort by providing expert consultation and evaluation. A unique aspect of our services is that we specialize in evaluations that are customized to your client’s specific needs.
Our psychology staff is knowledgeable of both the legal and psychological aspects of evaluating competency.
We have constructed an approach to evaluation that complies with statutory requirements and is based upon a variety of strategies that may include:
- Clinical interviews
- Collateral interviews
- Review of medical records
- Diagnostic assessment
- Behavioral observation
- State-of-the-art standardized psychological tests of demonstrated validity
The evaluation is followed by a written report of the results and any pertinent recommendations.
The report is specifically designed to be useful in legal contexts and can serve as evidence in a legal proceeding.
Our Evaluation Process…
The evaluations we provide include those related to functional capacity, testamentary capacity, decisional capacity, and contractual capacity. Although referrals for evaluation are typically made in response to concerns associated with aging, psychological evaluations of competence can also be quite helpful when concerns arise from disability, catastrophic illness, or injury.
In addition, we place great emphasis on performing evaluations of capacity within a framework that respects and addresses the client’s personal life history, values, dignity, and individual perspective on his or her needs.
We place a high priority on appointment availability, an affordable fee schedule, responsiveness to time constraints, and flexibility in accommodating circumstances that require travel or court appearance.
Call us today at 303-837-0776 to arrange a free 30-minute consultation.
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