Medicolegal/IME work before tenure and board certification

[NewNeuroDemic]

So I'm an early-career tenure track prof (50% research/50% clinical), and I've had some opportunities presented to me to do IMEs. I am conflicted about taking on this stuff because 1) I've only been licensed for one year, 2) I'm not yet board certified, and 3) spreading myself even more thinly is scary as research is what will earn me tenure. But...the money is really good and I have a senior colleague in my department who has offered to mentor me in this.

Any thoughts about doing this kind of work at this point with the listed concerns in mind?

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[psych.meout]

How long until you're eligible for tenure? If it seems like the IME work and the opportunities for mentorship in it will still be available, why not wait until tenure to get into it?

 

[NewNeuroDemic]

How long until you're eligible for tenure? If it seems like the IME work and the opportunities for mentorship in it will still be available, why not wait until tenure to get into it?

Oh I was only appointed in August 2021. So about five more years until I submit my tenure packet. Waiting until that time would be prudent from a research productivity perspective, but I also like money and five years is a lot of potential extra earnings.

 

[WisNeuro]

How much time can you devote to the IME work? The least amount of time I've spent on a case so far has been 12 hours. Often there are time limits to the report as well. If there is a settlement/mediation/etc hearing, they need your report, they don't care much for whatever else you have going on. Burn someone once on a case and they're likely to blacklist you with their firm.

It's good that you will have a mentor, as long as they have a good amount of experience in this realm, but I would look hard at what kind of time you can realistically devote to this. Also, be prepared for time estimates of how long things will take to be wrong.

 

[NewNeuroDemic]

How much time can you devote to the IME work? The least amount of time I've spent on a case so far has been 12 hours. Often there are time limits to the report as well. If there is a settlement/mediation/etc hearing, they need your report, they don't care much for whatever else you have going on. Burn someone once on a case and they're likely to blacklist you with their firm.

It's good that you will have a mentor, as long as they have a good amount of experience in this realm, but I would look hard at what kind of time you can realistically devote to this. Also, be prepared for time estimates of how long things will take to be wrong.

All great points. Thank you.

I don't know exactly how much time I "can" devote to this, but the plan would be for the evals to take place on Saturdays. My mentor, who is board certified, does this work regularly, and is kind of a big deal in the neuro world, estimates they take about 12-15 hours per, with more time needed if deposed. So I think a reasonable expectation would be for me to take 18-20 hours given my inexperience. But who knows.

What do you make of my concern about being licensed only one year and not being boarded? Seems like low-hanging fruit for the opposing attorneys to attack or even the opposing Neuropsychologist if there is one.

 

[WisNeuro]

All great points. Thank you.

I don't know exactly how much time I "can" devote to this, but the plan would be for the evals to take place on Saturdays. My mentor, who is board certified, does this work regularly, and is kind of a big deal in the neuro world, estimates they take about 12-15 hours per, with more time needed if deposed. So I think a reasonable expectation would be for me to take 18-20 hours given my inexperience. But who knows.

What do you make of my concern about being licensed only one year and not being boarded? Seems like low-hanging fruit for the opposing attorneys to attack or even the opposing Neuropsychologist if there is one.

12 would be on the lower end, in my experience. But, I'm fairly commonly getting 3000+pages of records and raw data from previous evals.

Board certification helps, there are certain clients who won't work with anyone who is not boarded. But, it's not a universal thing, plenty of non-boarded people doing IME work, but they tend to be older (but not all are) in the field. They'll definitely try and attack your early career aspects and try to make it look like inexperience. You just have to figure out how you're going to answer that. But, you have to do that anyway from a bunch of other attack angles anyway.

 

[PsyDr]

My concerns would be:

1) Spending time to train yourself: There's a bunch of reading you need to do for this line of work. Bare minimum -7 textbooks, 30hrs of internet reading. There are methods and terms you have to know. If you half@ss it, you're going to do poorly. Do poorly, and you can get blacklisted. There are databases.
2) Non-predictable timeframe: It's not like courts, hard deadlines for discovery, etc. are going to schedule around your teaching schedule. Nor are they going to schedule everything on Fridays in your city. You need a plan for when your IME is on Tuesday, or court deadline is on the day you have another obligation. Which is why I quit a job, and why most forensic people are in PP .
3) Who provides your malpractice insurance? If it's the university, you're going to need to buy your own.
4) Adjusting accounting with your university if your PP changes your tax bracket. Admittedly, I know little about this.
5) Plan for admin work associated with IME stuff. Who will sign for certified receipt? Who will scan? How will you get served with court orders at your office? If you need to get something notarized NOW, how will that be accomplished?

*I'm not a big name, just big in japan.

 

[Cantab109]

1) Spending time to train yourself: There's a bunch of reading you need to do for this line of work. Bare minimum -7 textbooks, 30hrs of internet reading. There are methods and terms you have to know. If you half@ss it, you're going to do poorly. Do poorly, and you can get blacklisted. There are databases.

Bit of a tangent, but would you mind sharing some of the books you recommend? You can never be too prepared with these! I've found the Best Practices for FMHA series to be quite helpful.

 

[NewNeuroDemic]

My concerns would be:

1) Spending time to train yourself: There's a bunch of reading you need to do for this line of work. Bare minimum -7 textbooks, 30hrs of internet reading. There are methods and terms you have to know. If you half@ss it, you're going to do poorly. Do poorly, and you can get blacklisted. There are databases.
2) Non-predictable timeframe: It's not like courts, hard deadlines for discovery, etc. are going to schedule around your teaching schedule. Nor are they going to schedule everything on Fridays in your city. You need a plan for when your IME is on Tuesday, or court deadline is on the day you have another obligation. Which is why I quit a job, and why most forensic people are in PP .
3) Who provides your malpractice insurance? If it's the university, you're going to need to buy your own.
4) Adjusting accounting with your university if your PP changes your tax bracket. Admittedly, I know little about this.
5) Plan for admin work associated with IME stuff. Who will sign for certified receipt? Who will scan? How will you get served with court orders at your office? If you need to get something notarized NOW, how will that be accomplished?

*I'm not a big name, just big in japan.

Thanks!

To your points...my intention is certainly NOT to half@ass it. I've been fortunate to be able to attend various didactics and talks about this stuff beginning on internship, which has provided notes and slides with references I am gathering. Because obtaining my first case may take a minute, I'm going to shadow the mentor and go through their process with them, including the report, in the interim. Your point about scheduling is one I need to investigate further because the mentor only does these on Saturdays (but turnaround times on the product varies apparently). The department encourages this sort of work because they get their cut and the law firms actually fill out the check to the department, not me. So the accounting is all done in house and the mentor has no issues with this system. Finally, regarding admin, I will utilize the techs from the clinic and the various support staff to manage all of this. The department and school of medicine get their cut of course but not having to source all of that is worth it. The techs earn their typical hourly wage and an additional $500 bonus for working on a Saturday.