Forensic psychiatrists' fee agreements: a preliminary empirical survey and discussion

The author performed a preliminary empirical study of forensic fee agreements. A survey of forensic psychiatrists produced samples of fee agreements used for expert witness work. The samples were analyzed to determine patterns of usage, critical elements, styles of agreement design, and other observations. Despite uncertainties of payment in this field, a surprising number of experts do not use formal fee agreements. This and other results are discussed.