The 1993 US Supreme Court ruling in Daubert v. Merrill Dow Pharmaceuticals signaled a change in the way courts view expert testimony, including testimony offered by forensic psychiatrists. Daubert gives trial judges broad discretion when ruling on the admissibility of expert testimony. The Daubert standard has not been adopted in all jurisdictions, but may signal a general trend towards closer scrutiny of the basis for expert testimony.
The implicit challenge of Daubert has stimulated a renewed interest in data-based research in forensic psychiatry. Forensic psychiatrists working in academic settings are leading research efforts in violence risk assessment, assessment and treatment of sexual offenders, evaluation and treatment of correctional patients, and many other areas. Those in private practice may find themselves in need of "hard data" to back up their opinions or guide their participation in litigation. The traditional sources of information, the medical and law libraries, may not be available everywhere or may require commitments of time and effort above and beyond usual working hours. Some practitioners may be discouraged from seeking needed data because of this "hassle factor."
A practical alternative to paper-based library research is the Internet. Physicians and attorneys have embraced the Internet with enthusiasm, and a variety of free and subscription research sites are available. This article will review some of the available research resources on the World Wide Web, for both academic and case-based research.
The AAPL Web Site (www.aapl.org) provides rapid links to several important resources, including legal resources and government statistical information. It also includes links to individual AAPL member's Web pages, many of which also contain links to legal and medical sites.
The Medline system of the National Library of Medicine is the most frequently used computer-based search system for medical journals. Many journals in general psychiatry and forensic psychiatry are indexed on Medline. A disadvantage to Medline is that the full text of articles is not available, only abstracts. Some journals now publish their full text articles, including the American Journal of Psychiatry, so that some Medline searches may now provide full text versions. In general, though, a Medline search may still require a phone call or trip to the local medical library to obtain the actual references. Medline is frequently available through medical school libraries, or through the National Library of Medicine's Web site (www.nlm.nih.gov).
The psychological literature is accessible through the subscription-only PsychINFO database (www.apa.org/psychinfo). This database contains references to journals that may not be indexed in Medline such as psychological journals or specialized psychiatric journals. The sections of this database that contain references to journals, books, and book chapters (PsychLit) are available on CD-ROM with regular updates through the Internet, by subscription.
The standard reference on psychological testing, The Medical Measurements Yearbook, is available in electronic form through numerous academic sites. Two of these are at Shipmansburg University (www.ship.edu/~library/instruction/mental.htm) and the University of Nebraska, Lincoln (www.libfind.unl.edu/buros). This database provides summaries and reviews of many of the hundreds of psychological instruments available. Forensic clinicians will find this site useful when including interpretations of psychological testing in reports and testimony, especially for specialized or unfamiliar tests.
Legal research, a traditional cornerstone of legal practice, is widely accessible online. Free sites are available, usually with relatively limited but useful databases available to all users. More complete search engines are available through paid or subscription services that usually serve law firms but are available to individual practitioners.
State constitutions, statutes, and administrative regulations are freely available from several sources. A site maintained by James Hooper MD (bama.ua.edu/~jhooper/statelis.html) provides direct links to most of the state web sites, some of which have searchable listings of state laws and regulations. Individual state government pages are also available through Web sites such as Yahoo! (www.yahoo.com); most of these will have links to their available listings of state laws. The Cornell Law School's Legal Information Institute (www.law.cornell.edu) also includes links to state constitutions and statutes.
The free legal site FindLaw (www.findlaw.com) provides searches of U.S. Supreme Court decisions, many Federal Circuit Court decisions, and larger state court decisions. This database is useful for getting the full texts of many important decisions that affect forensic psychiatry, especially the AAPL Landmark Cases. The full texts of these cases can be downloaded and printed free of charge. FindLaw also allows users to register for free and obtain daily e-mail "clippings" of legal news and important new legal decisions.
The major commercial legal research sites, formerly available only by subscription, are now beginning to offer access on a search-by-search basis or at reduced rates for individual subscribers. The best-known sites are Lexis (www.lexis.com) and WestLaw (www.westlaw.com), the online arm of the well-known legal publisher. Lexis now offers pay-as-you-go searches for case citations or case histories ("Shepardizing" cases), using a credit card. If you need legal searches on an infrequent basis, this allows access to the huge Lexis database without a monthly service commitment. Full subscriptions are also available to individuals. These normally require a monthly maintenance fee with additional charges for individual searches and download. The Lexis web site allows new users to fully explore the various subscription and payment options. In addition to its regular subscription service, WestLaw offers the WestDoc service (www.westdoc.com) for downloading individual citations, charging a fee for each download to your credit card.
The rapid growth of the Internet is spawning new legal search services, designed to meet the needs of small law firms and solo practitioners without the cost of larger services. One of these is VersusLaw.com (www.versuslaw.com), which offers a searchable database of state and federal case law for a small monthly fee ($6.95 at the time of this article). You can also buy access for a single 24-hour period for a larger one-time charge. There is no charge for time on-line or for downloading material to your computer. Smaller legal sites do not have the access to the vast resources of the larger commercial services, but for routine research they may fit the bill without the expense of more complete databases.
As forensic psychiatrists struggle to keep up with developments in medicine, psychiatry, law, and forensic psychiatry, the Internet can be a valuable tool for busy practitioners and researchers alike. And with increased competition, expect prices for commercial research services to drop in an effort to reach solo legal practitioners and "hangers-on" - like us.