forensic psych question

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[Doc Samson]

I was just wondering....if forensic psychiatrists can make 5-6k for each report they produce, with a report taking about 8-12 hours....how come people are not flooding into psychiatry and this subspecialty? Say you did one report per day, which took 12 hours max, 4 days a week, and had a regular psychiatric practice 1 day a week. You'd make over a million a year.

My questions:

1. Is there huge competition between psychiatrists to get a chance to even do these kind of reports? Is it possible for a person to do 4+ reports per week? Or are there simply not that many cases out there?

2. How difficult is it to get forensic only work like this, right after fellowship? Do most forensic psychiatrists end up working as regular psychiatrists for many years, before they can build up the forensic portion of their practice?

3. Does the "prestige" of your fellowship or residency matter much, at all, in helping you get more clients? Does it help to be an academic forensic psych, to get more clients? Or is it just all about marketing?

3. How come everyone is so crazy about child psychiatry (and any other specialty like rads or derm for that matter) when this seems much more lucrative and, in my opinion, far more interesting? Is there something I am missing here? The nature of the work (able to do a good amount of reading/writing from home) and the compensation seems way too good to be true.

Thank you all so much for your help and responses

The most esteemed forensic psychiatrists can command fees in the $500-800 per hour range. They are called in on high dollar amount civil cases (where it's worth the investment because of the relative pay-off/savings) and high profile criminal cases (where, unless the defendant is very wealthy, they don't get paid near as much). It takes a LOT of energy to maintain the level of academic esteem that'll get you these kind of fees (writing, teaching, lecturing, etc.), so for each hour that you actually bill for, there are likely many more that go unpaid which are focused on maintaining your credibility. For the attorneys it's often about "my expert witness is better than yours" based on the idea that a jury will be more impressed by testimony from an ivy-league professor of psychiatry than joe-shmoe private practice doc, so comparing CVs becomes important.

 

[whopper]

Working on a forensic unit-you can say that I'm a forensic psychiatrist. I however haven't gotten the fellowship done yet.

I have noticed that several who have done fellowship & my fellow psychiatrists running the forensic units aren't making more than other psychiatrists. To make the big moolah, you need to set up shop doing reports, and this requires a nonconvential job. You won't be running a unit, you'll be meeting with attorneys most of the time. Also to be respected as a good forensic psychiatrist, one like Doc Samson mentioned, you can't just be doing reports. Publications, some experience in a forensic unit, a fellowship, among other things need to be done.

 

[Anasazi23]

I was just wondering....if forensic psychiatrists can make 5-6k for each report they produce, with a report taking about 8-12 hours....how come people are not flooding into psychiatry and this subspecialty? Say you did one report per day, which took 12 hours max, 4 days a week, and had a regular psychiatric practice 1 day a week. You'd make over a million a year.

My questions:

1. Is there huge competition between psychiatrists to get a chance to even do these kind of reports? Is it possible for a person to do 4+ reports per week? Or are there simply not that many cases out there?

Depending on the city, there is competition. More importantly, there's not that many fellowship programs, and the competition is getting very tough to get one.

2. How difficult is it to get forensic only work like this, right after fellowship? Do most forensic psychiatrists end up working as regular psychiatrists for many years, before they can build up the forensic portion of their practice?

I'd say that most forensic psychiatrists right out of fellowship pretty much have to have a conventional job. It takes time to generate referrals and get your name out to the local lawyers. Once you do, you'll be turning down cases in many towns. Many see initial cases in the evenings and write reports on the weekend at first, until they cut back on their private practice to make more room for forensic work. At that point, you can simply incorporate forensic cases into your case load for the day. You'll just get paid a lot more to do that eval and report, if that's what they or the attorney need. IMEs are even easier and quicker.

3. Does the "prestige" of your fellowship or residency matter much, at all, in helping you get more clients? Does it help to be an academic forensic psych, to get more clients? Or is it just all about marketing?

Prestige helps in the court room, but nothing works better than a likeable demeanor to the jury. They'll take the lesser-known expert who's genuine, likeable, and competent over the obnoxious, stuffy, and unreachable pompousness of a Harvard expert on most days.

3. How come everyone is so crazy about child psychiatry (and any other specialty like rads or derm for that matter) when this seems much more lucrative and, in my opinion, far more interesting? Is there something I am missing here? The nature of the work (able to do a good amount of reading/writing from home) and the compensation seems way too good to be true.

I have no idea [about the child psych]. It makes no sense. Highly litiginous, highly time consuming, highly annoying, for relatively little extra pay and two year (in some cases) fellowship. I'll pass. Of course, this is just my correct opinion.

Thank you all so much for your help and responses

No problem.