The Monetary Worth of Psychological Injury

Damages and rewards: assessment of malingered disorders in compensation cases

“…workrelated activities) before asking for any general questions about disability status. Samra and Koch (2002) apply a behavioral paradigm to explain the potential effects of positive reinforcement on the maintenance of disabilities. They proposed that direct monetary payments might serve to reinforce and maintain claimants' impaired functioning.…”

“…To underscore this key issue, a lack of cooperation or openness stemming from inadequate rapport is an observation about the evaluation and not the client. Samra and Koch (2002) noted the lexogenic effects of personal injury and disability-related litigation that may adversely affect recovery and complicate forensic evaluations. One characterization of these effects is the litigation response syndrome (LRS; Lees-Haley, 1988), which posits a stress-related exacerbation of the client's condition as a result of continued litigation.…”

Forensic Psychology, Psychological Injuries and the Law

“…There is strong evidence that this claim is not correct (Ackerman and Kane 1998;Binder and Willis 1991;Binder and Rohling 1996;Bryant and Harvey 2003;Butcher and Miller 2006;Call 2003;Nicholson and Martelli 2007;Samra and Koch 2002;Shuman 2000a;Walfish 2006;Wilson and Moran 2004). Some people largely recover the ability to function somewhat normally early in the litigation process, whereas many continue to be plagued with serious problems for years post-litigation.…”

“…People who have PTSD tend to relive the trauma and to experience the psychological and (if relevant) physical disabilities caused by the traumatic incident, slowing the healing process. By its nature, tort cases force the individual to recall the trauma, preventing to some degree the person's ability to resolve the PTSD and/or other symptoms (Samra and Connolly 2004;Samra and Koch 2002;Scrignar 1996;Simon and Wettstein 1997). Plaintiffs discuss the trauma and its consequences with their attorneys until they arrive at a cogent statement that includes all of the material facts.…”

The Effects of Health Anxiety and Litigation Potential on Symptom Endorsement, Cognitive Performance, and Physiological Functioning in the Context of a Food and Drug Administration Drug Recall Announcement

“…Malingering is also associated with an “amplified presentation” of symptoms (i.e., more symptoms relative to genuine experiences of pathology and perhaps more than those with higher health anxiety), including endorsing large numbers of symptoms, high symptom severity, and endorsement of erroneous symptom stereotypes ( Walczyk et al, 2018 ). The literature is clear in illustrating that malingering is associated with elevating symptom reporting and intentional underperformance on objective cognitive measures for those involved in litigation It is also likely that people experiencing more symptoms (physical and psychological) and functional consequences (marked by underperformance on cognitive measures) are more likely to litigate for compensation (see Samra and Koch, 2002 ). Thus, differentiating malingering from legitimate symptom experience, or from a health anxious response in people who have taken a drug and report adverse reactions is notoriously difficult, and this has proven to be the case even for trained medical professionals ( Bellamy, 1997 ).…”