08/07/2025
I recently had the wonderful opportunity to contribute, in a minor manner, to the following piece: https://www.derebus.org.za/medico-legal-educational-predictions-leave-much-to-be-desired/
Generally, the medico-legal field is a rather tough one in South Africa. Despite this, many experts and colleagues do their utmost best to remain as objective and fair as possible, and to act as expert witness to the court - not to the instructing party.
However, there are issues in the field. The short piece is only able to scratch the surface on some of these. While there are certainly experts who represent the discipline in a professional manner, a number of recent judgments have come out with a more critical stance towards medico-legal experts, especially psychologists in various categories of registration. Reports based on hearsay; generic, unverified arguments; and lacking substantial proof are coming under the spotlight more and more and have a significant risk of damaging the name of psychologists within the medico-legal field, as well as with the wider public. This should be guarded against as it can undermine the credibility of both the expert as well as the discipline. In touching on some of the issues, perhaps we can contribute to a wider conversation around the responsible use of educational postulations within the field.
