Neuropsychiatry Expert Witnesses: 7

Lawrence Amsel, MD, MPH, specializes in Forensic Psychiatry, including personal injury and psychiatric malpractice. With an MD from Yale University and an MPH in Biostatistics from Columbia University, Dr. Amsel combines his academic credentials, including multileg publications, and clinical expertise including decades as an inpatient and emergency room psychiatrist. With this experience he serves as an expert witness to offer excellent evaluations, written reports and court testimony. 

Dr. Amsel provides Litigation Support services to attorneys representing Plaintiff and Defense. His services include serving as expert witness in psychiatric aspects of personal injury, psychiatric malpractice,  medical record review for causation and standard of care. He has expertise in trauma, PTSD, suicide, Prolonged Grief Disorder, competency issues and medical decision making. He was one of the early champions of the application of Decision Science, Game Theory, and Behavioral Economics to Psychiatric Research.

Areas of Expertise:

Psychiatric Personal Injury   Psychiatric Malpractice  Trauma  PTSD  Suicide Prolonged Grief Disorder  Competency

Psychiatric Practice Standards  Public Health Family Loss Neuropsychiatry Health Care Standards  Behavioral Economics in Health Care Health Care Game Theory

Background - Dr. Amsel serves as an expert witness in matters related to psychiatry, with a focus on  Malpractice, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Suicide, Grief, Medical Decision Making, Hospital Psychiatric Care, and appropriate Evidence-based Standards of Care. Excellent references from multiple law firms are available on request. 

Dr. Amsel's expertise in dealing with the interface of legal and psychiatric issues is based on 28 years of experience in clinical practice, academic psychiatry, research, and public health, as well as his experience as an expert witness.

As an expert on the effects of traumatic experiences, especially after 9/11, Dr. Amsel co-directed the Trauma Studies and Services Division at the New York State Psychiatric Institute. He has been extensively involved in treating victims of 9/11 and their families, in doing research on the effects of the 9/11 attacks on the survivors and First Responders, and in training clinicians in cutting edge treatments for PTSD and Complicated /Traumatic Grief. This has given him a strong foundation as an expert on PTSD and other psychological effects of various types of trauma. It has also made him an expert on malpractice cases in this area. 

Dr. Amsel studied mathematics at Columbia University before entering Yale University School of Medicine. After completing residency training he joined the Columbia faculty completing two prestigious National Institute of Mental Health research fellowships and obtained an Masters in Public Health (MPH) specializing in mental health statistics, and Child Psychiatry Research. 

View Dr. Amsel's Consulting Profile.

Gregory P. Brown, MD, is a is a Diplomate of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology and specializes in the fields of adult Psychiatry and Forensic Psychiatry. His private office is dedicated to the practice of Forensic Psychiatry, and includes evaluations for matters in civil court, criminal court, family court, and independent psychiatric evaluations.

Dr. Brown is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry, and the Residency Training Program Director, at the University of Nevada Las Vegas School of Medicine. He founded the Psychiatry Residency Training Program, and has been the Residency Training Director since the time of the first entering class in 2004, under the UNRSOM.

Litigation Support - Dr. Brown has extensive experience in medico-legal work. As a Board Certified Forensic Psychiatrist, he has worked in diverse areas of this subspecialty of psychiatry. Dr. Brown offers litigations support services to attorneys for Plaintiff and Defendant.

Services include Disability Evaluations, Estate Planning Capacity Evaluations, Independent Psychiatric Evaluations, Medical Board Evaluations, Fitness for Duty Evaluations, Department of Energy Fitness Evaluations, Social Security Appeals Record Reviews, and Independent File Reviews for Medical Necessity and for Disability Claims.

Forensic Experience Includes:

• Criminal Court Evaluations - Competence to Stand Trial, Assessment of Criminal Responsibility, NGRI Assessments
• Civil Court Evaluations - Personal Injury with Psychiatric symptoms, Brain Injury with Psychiatric symptoms, Malpractice related questions
• Family Court Evaluations - Involuntary Commitment, Guardianship, Testamentary Capacity, Undue Influence, Contractual Capacity, Fitness to Parent, Child Custody
• Third Party Forensic Evaluations - Fitness for Duty, Return to Work, Disability, ADA Accommodations, Medical Necessity, Independent Psychiatric Evaluations

A senior clinical faculty member at Harvard Medical School, Harold J. Bursztajn, M.D., is active in patient care in medical, psychiatric and judicial education nationally. He is qualified in both state and federal courts and is nationally recognized as a distinguished impartial, clinical, ethical and forensic expert to P/D attorneys and institutions. Individual and multispecialty team consultations available.

• Informed Consent & Malpractice
• Employment Litigation: ADA, Disability, Sexual Misconduct Discrimination, Worker's Compensation
• Emotional & Physical Damages: Conscious Pain & Suffering, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Neuropsychiatry & Pain Imaging
• Standards For Experts
• Product Liability: Medical Devices & Pharmaceuticals, Toxic Tort
• Criminal Justice & Public Safety: Diminished Capacity, Drug Addiction, Competency to Confess, Death Penalty Mitigation, Workplace Safety
• Family & Custody Issues
• Testamentary & Contractual Capacity
• Professional & Organizational Ethics: Patient Care, Managed Care, Privacy
• Psychoanalysis & Cultural Perspectives

James H. Reich, MD, MPH, is a board-certified Forensic Psychiatrist with extensive civil psychiatry experience who has done hundreds of evaluations.

After getting his MD from the University of Colorado Medical Center in Denver, Dr. Reich earned his MPH at Yale University and did his psychiatric residency at UC Davis. Dr. Reich has held academic positions at Yale, Iowa, Harvard, and Brown Universities.  Currently, he has teaching appointments at the professor level at both UCSF and Stanford University. Throughout his career, he has published over a hundred peer-reviewed publications. 

Litigation Support - Dr. Reich’s services are available for civil and some criminal law cases. Clients are assured of his personal dedication to each case. He does high quality research, expert evaluations, writes a solid report, and will testify well. Dr. Reich has been deposed over 50 times.

Areas of Expertise:

Antisocial Personality Disorder Antisocial Behavior Sadistic Personality Disorder Borderline Personality Disorder Competency to Stand Trial Depression Fitness for Duty Generalized Anxiety Disorder Psychiatry Malpractice

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Panic Disorder Anxiety and Alcohol Personality Disorders Post Traumatic Stress Disorder / PTSD Psychiatric Disability Morbidity of Dependent Personality Disorder Social Anxiety Disorder Somatoform Disorder - Hypochondriasis Suicide

Presentations - As faculty at the Stanford Forensic Fellowship program, Dr. Reich has given two talks to the group. On October 27, 2023, he presented, "What Gets Psychiatrists and other Medical Professionals into Problems with the Law or Regulators." On January 19, 2024, he presented a talk on Psychiatric Disability to the same group. Dr. Reich is also supervising a fellow on his project on competency issues in older physicians.

Bankole A. Johnson, DSc, MD, MBChB, MPhil, FRCPsych, DFAPA, Dip-ABAM, Dip-ABDA, FACFEI, is a leading Neuroscientist and respected global authority in both Psychiatry and Neuroscience. His considerable education and expertise dates to the 1970s, when he received his first general studies diplomas.

Dr. Johnson earned his Medicinae Baccalaureum et Chirurgiae Baccalaureum (an M.D. equivalent) from the University of Glasgow in Scotland. He also received his UK Board Certification in Psychiatry from the Royal College of Psychiatrists, his Master of Philosophy in Neuropsychiatry at the University of London, his Ph.D. in Biomedical Studies from Oxford University and the University of Glasgow, and his Doctor of Medicine degree, also from the University of Glasgow (coursework at the University of Oxford).

In addition to these qualifications, Dr. Johnson has also received United States certifications from both the American College of Forensic Examiners Institute, the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, and the American Board of Addiction Medicine. Today, Bankole Johnson is a board-certified psychiatrist and physician throughout both Europe and the United States. He serves as a respected collegiate authority in his field at a leading university in the United States.

Dr. Johnson is a leading authority on the effects of abused drugs including alcohol on the brain and how this affects behavior, especially that related to the commission of a crime. He is a national expert on the treatment of opioid addiction as well as on assessing medical malpractice and insurance claims. Dr. Johnson also is a national expert on the effects of diseases of the brain, mental illness, mental disorder, and aberrant behaviors on testamentary capacity. He also is a national expert on assessing disability as a result of mental disorder, mental illness, and alcohol and drug abuse. Along the way, Bankole Johnson has also been the recipient of numerous high-profile awards in his fields and industries of specialty.

Litigation Support - Dr. Johnson provides expert witness services for cases involving all aspects of Addiction Medicine. He is experienced as an expert witness not only for medical malpractice but also for capital cases and major crimes. Dr. Johnson's services are available to attorneys for plaintiff and defendant and include medical record review, written reports, depositions, and trial testimony when needed.

Areas of Expertise:

Addiction Medicine Alcohol Brain Injury Disability Health Insurance

Medical Insurance Disability Insurance Medical Insurance Medical Malpractice Psychiatry

View Dr. Johnson's Business Consultant Profile

Dwight Owens, MD, Chief Psychiatrist for Peachstate Psychiatric Service Is a Board- Certified Psychiatrist, Forensic trained and Master Certified Independent Medical Examiner. He been practicing medicine for more than 30 years in both inpatient and outpatient psychiatric care.

Litigation Support - In recent years, Dr. Owens has worked on greater than 50 competency evaluations, more than 50 IME’s, and also served as an expert more than 25 times and has extensive experience in medical record reviews. His services are available to lay persons, law firms and private attorneys, independent medical examiners, hospitals, employers, and criminal justice systems. Dr. Owens has been practicing medicine throughout the state of Georgia and currently holds licenses in both Georgia and New York. 

Areas of Expertise: 

Independent Medical Exams (IMEs) Fitness for Duty DBQ Exams / Nexus Letter for Veterans Medical Record Review Injury Claims / PTSD, MST, Personal Injuries

Second Opinion Evaluations Psychiatric Impairment Exams Criminal Responsibility Exams Testamentary Capacity Competency to Stand Trial

Dr. Owens received his Bachelor’s degree from the prestigious Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia. He received his medical doctorate from Health Science Center (HSC) at Syracuse in 1994. He then returned to Macon, Georgia where he attended Mercer University’s School of Medicine, and obtained an internship certificate in the area of Family Medicine. In 1998. On completion of his Adult and General Psychiatry training, he attended Emory University in Atlanta Georgia and completed a fellowship in Forensic Psychiatry. (Psychiatry and the Law). In 1999 he became board-certified in Adult and General Psychiatry.

Elliott M. Stein, MD is a Geriatric Psychiatrist with over 45 years of experience caring for the elderly. Dr. Stein is Board Certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology in General Psychiatry (October, 1979) and Geriatric Psychiatry (April, 1991; Re-Certified, December, 2001, April, 2011, December 2022). He is licensed in California and Florida. Dr. Stein was the Director of Psychiatry at the Jewish Home of San Francisco from 2010-2020, and the Medical Director of their Geriatric Psychiatry Hospital. He has treated older individuals, typically people who have complex combination of psychiatric and medical problems. Dr. Stein has been a Member of the Task Force on Testamentary Capacity and Undue Influence, for the International PsychoGeriatric Association.

Dr. Stein is a Clinical Professor (Voluntary) in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine. He is a Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and a Distinguished Fellow of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry and a Life Member of the International PsychoGeriatric Association.

He is available to serve as an Expert Witness, do legal and forensic consultation, record review, and assessments concerning Psychiatric issues in Older Individuals. Dr. Stein offers his services to attorneys for both Plaintiff or Defense.

Areas of Expertise:

• Contested Wills and Trusts
• Testamentary Capacity, Undue Influence, Insane Delusions
• Financial Elder Abuse
• Geriatric Competence/Capacity
• Dementia and Delirium, Alzheimer’s Disease
• Geriatric Psychiatry Evaluation and Treatment, Psychiatric Medication, Psychotherapeutic Issues
• Depression and Anxiety Disorders
• Relationship Problems between the Elderly and their Adult Children
• Aging and Mental Disorders
• Geriatric Psychiatry issues in Hospitals, Nursing Homes, Memory Care, Independent and Assisted Living Facilities
• Medicare Psychiatric Services Coding and Documentation

View Dr. Stein's Consulting Profile.