A recent decision by the Illinois Industrial Commission has significant implications, not only for FCEs being performed in Illinois, but for FCEs in other states.  Furthermore, the substantial similarity between the FCE our litigation support services helped challenge foretells similar decisions in other states.  Click on this sentence to download the Clewell v. State of Illinois decision. 

Forensic Dissection of an FCE, Second Edition has just been released.  This is a 564-page fully annotated guide, intended for use by attorneys, physicians, nurse case managers and FCE reviewers.  This guide provides a step-by-step method for identifying problematic testing methods and preparing interrogatories for taking legal testimony.   More than 2,500 categorized questions are provided to make the process of reviewing and challenging adverse FCE reports in an efficient and thorough manner.  Our new chapters include "Aces in the Hole" which are countermeasures for the difficult witness, developed as the result of our studying of transcripts in which attorneys used our questions.  We have also included a chapter related to published studies on juries, judges and litigation tactics.  This resource will provide the information required to challenge the "standard" FCE practices that have fed an expert witness culture and hurt employers and claimants alike. 

Many of the "standard" testing methodologies are no longer legally-defensible---if attorneys know what questions to ask when taking legal testimony.  They can be successfully challenged every time using uncompromising logic, the insider's view of FCEs provided in this book and, in many cases, the very bibliographic references said to support the protocol that is being challenged.  This book will provide you specific questions to challenge many components of the standard FCE, including---but certainly not limited to---all of the following testing methods:

• Static (isometric) testing for the purpose of predicting dynamic lifting capacity

• Static testing for the purpose of classifying validity of effort

• Visual estimation of effort to classify exertion or cooperation during an FCE

• Heart rate as an index of maximum voluntary effort

• Coefficient of variation (COV) for assessing effort during hand strength testing

• Rapid Exchange Grip (REG) testing for assessing effort during hand strength testing

• The "Bell Curve" for assessing effort during hand strength testing

Forensic Dissection is sold as a PDF document which has the following features:

• Navigation links that facilitate ease of use, allowing the reader to efficiently cruise from one chapter to another and within two of the longer chapters

• Comprehensive and categorized lists of questions that correspond to our dichotomy of standard FCE testing practices

• When illustrative of a point, working hyperlinks to videos or documents found on the Internet

• Glossary of commonly-used terms and testing concepts

• Categorized bibliographic citations and abstracts for studies useful to the reader

• Recommendations within the interrogatives which provide the attorney with useful information pertaining to specific questions, including suggestions for introducing specific published studies into evidence as well as specific passages from those studies which might be read into the record

We are confident that Forensic Dissection will give you the information that you will find useful and effective.  If you are not satisfied with our book, we will gladly refund your money.  Individual and small entity licenses are sold for $395.  For a practice or group license, contact us by clicking on this sentence. To download a redacted copy of our book, click on this text.