The goal of a forensic evaluation in a personal injury case is to do a pre-and post-injury assessment to examine the impact of an event on a person's functioning and how this will impact them in the future.

 

Psychological trauma can result from almost any physical injury, especially if the injury occurs within a life-threatening event. Injuries that are physically disfiguring or those which disable everyday skills needed to function and meet the demands of one's environment, including the skills necessary to effectively and independently take care of oneself and to interact with other people (adaptive functioning skills) are more likely to result in psychological trauma.

 

Additionally, psychological trauma can occur in the absence of any significant physical injury, either as the result of witnessing trauma in others or following personal escape from serious injury following a traumatic event. 

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Psychological trauma may result in a post-traumatic stress response (the most commonly expected diagnosis), but it can also cause depression, phobias, generalized anxiety, or dissociation and psychosis. 

 

Psychologists also evaluate the functional impact of head injury, such as loss of specific memory functions, cognitive impairment, loss of learning ability, disturbed spatial ability, or amnesia. 

 

The evaluation of possible malingering is also considered in psychological evaluations in personal injury cases.