Forensic Psychologist In Hypoluxo, FL
Start Here: Your Case May Not Need Us At All
If a judge has already signed an order for a psychological evaluation in a Palm Beach County case, call the county’s own Court Psychology office first at (561) 355-2108.
That office is part of Palm Beach County Public Safety, Justice Services. It is not a private practice, and it is not competing for your retainer. Its psychologists hold doctorates in clinical psychology, valid Florida licenses, and completed Florida Forensic Examiner training. They take referrals only on a court order, and costs are set by the presiding judge and taxed to the case rather than billed to you up front.
They will meet you at the Main Judicial Complex, or the North, South, or West County courthouses. They also evaluate at the Palm Beach County Main Detention Center, the West Detention Center, the Jerome Golden Center, JFK Medical Center North, South County Mental Health Center, and St. Mary’s Medical Center. From Hypoluxo, the South County Courthouse at 200 West Atlantic Avenue in Delray Beach is the closest of the four.
Email is PSD-CourtPsychology@pbcgov.org. Call as soon as the order is signed, because the appointment calendar is what sets your timeline.
So when does a private evaluator make sense? Three situations.
You are a defense attorney building your own record and you want an expert you selected, not one assigned by rotation. You need an evaluation type the county office does not perform, which includes personal injury, immigration hardship, neuropsychological testing, and psychological autopsy. Or you are in a family, civil, or immigration matter where no criminal court order exists and there is nothing for the county to act on.
Most pages in this market will not tell you the county option exists. We would rather lose the cases that belong there.
What Changed On July 1, 2026, And How To Check Any Evaluator In Five Minutes
Florida Statute 916.115 now requires every court-appointed forensic evaluator to complete initial and annual forensic evaluator training provided by the Department of Children and Families. Evaluators already on the list as of July 1, 2024 had until July 1, 2026 to complete the annual training or come off it.
That deadline has passed. Juvenile work carries its own parallel requirement for initial and annual juvenile forensic competency evaluation training.
Two more provisions in the same statute that change how you should read any forensic report:
The court appoints no more than three experts. Not five, not a panel you can keep expanding until the answer improves.
And payment is conditional. The statute reads that in order for an expert to be paid for the services rendered, the expert’s report and testimony must explicitly address each of the statutory factors and follow the procedures set out in Chapter 916. A report that skips a factor is not merely weak. It is unbillable.
How to verify an evaluator before you retain one
- Ask which DCF trainings they have completed and in what year.
- Check the DCF statewide forensic evaluator list. The copy published by the 12th Judicial Circuit was updated June 29, 2026.
- Confirm the list you are looking at is the DCF training list, not a court contract list. Those are different things and the 12th Circuit says so directly on its page.
- Ask for the Florida license number and check it against the Department of Health.
- For a 15th Circuit criminal appointment, ask whether they hold a contract with the circuit, because appointments come by rotation from the contracted list.
Dr. Colet’s license is PY9058. Ask us for the training dates and we will send them without a phone call first.
What Drives The Cost Of A Forensic Evaluation
Forensic evaluation is priced by the work the legal question requires, not off a rate card. Two competency evaluations on the same charge can differ by a factor of three because one case has forty pages of records and the other has twelve hundred.
Call us with the case type and the hearing date and we will quote it in writing before you commit. Ask for a written fee schedule from every evaluator you are considering, including us. A verbal “we will work something out” is how forensic engagements go sideways.
The five variables that move the number
- Records volume. The biggest driver by a wide margin. Medical, school, prior psychiatric, arrest, and prior evaluation records all have to be read and cited. Mitigation and personal injury files are the heaviest.
- Number of parties. A single-parent capacity assessment is one interview set. A social investigation covering both parents plus the children, with home visits, is several times the work.
- Collateral interviews. Retrospective questions such as criminal responsibility require interviews with people who observed the defendant around the time of the offense. Each one adds hours.
- Testing battery. A competency instrument set and a full neuropsychological battery are not the same administration time or the same scoring time.
- Testimony and deposition. Billed separately from the evaluation. Reserved time is charged whether or not you end up calling the witness.
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How Court-appointed Compensation Works, And Why It Matters To You
When the court appoints the expert, the 15th Judicial Circuit pays a flat fee per evaluation set by Administrative Order 2.601-10/21, with separate flat rates for neuropsychological and juvenile work and a hard cap on testimony compensation regardless of how long cross-examination runs.
That capped structure is worth understanding before you rely on an appointed report. Florida circuits set radically different compensation for the identical statutory evaluation. Some pay hourly, some pay a flat fee per evaluation, and the spread between the most and least generous circuits runs to several hundred percent. Same statute, same competency factors, very different economics.
Now combine that with the payment condition in 916.115, which withholds payment entirely unless the report explicitly addresses every statutory factor. Capped compensation on one side, an all-or-nothing payment condition on the other. That is the structural reason report quality varies as much as it does across Florida, and it has nothing to do with any individual evaluator’s credentials.
Appointments in this circuit come by rotation from the list of experts under contract with the 15th Judicial Circuit. You do not pick the evaluator. That is the trade you are making when you rely on an appointment instead of retaining someone.
Insurance does not cover any of this
Forensic evaluation is legal work, not clinical treatment. There is no covered diagnosis, no treatment plan, and no medical necessity to bill against. Health insurance will decline it, and so will Medicare and Medicaid. Anyone who tells you otherwise is describing a clinical evaluation, which is a different product that will not survive a Daubert challenge under Fla. Stat. 90.702.
Florida adopted the Daubert standard when the Supreme Court of Florida issued In re: Amendments to the Florida Evidence Code, 278 So. 3d 551, on May 23, 2019.
Three Ways To Get A Forensic Evaluation In Palm Beach County
| County Court Psychology | Court-appointed private expert | Privately retained | |
|---|---|---|---|
| How it starts | Judge signs an order | Judge appoints by rotation from the circuit’s contracted list | You or your attorney engage directly |
| Who chooses the evaluator | The county office assigns | Rotation, not you | You |
| Who pays | Costs set by the judge, taxed to the case | The circuit, at AO 2.601 rates | You, up front |
| Cost to you | Set by the presiding judge and taxed to the case | Paid by the circuit, not by you | Quoted in writing before you commit |
| Testimony | Included in the appointment | Compensation capped by administrative order | Billed separately, reserved time charged |
| Timeline control | Their calendar | Their calendar | Yours |
| Available for civil, immigration, personal injury | No | No | Yes |
| Best for | Any criminal case where the order already exists | Cases where the court drives the process | Attorney-built records, civil, family, immigration |
Most people searching this phrase belong in column one and do not know it exists.
Criminal Evaluations For Hypoluxo And South Palm Beach County Cases
FC PsychExperts conducts six categories of criminal forensic evaluation, each written to the specific statutory standard the court applies.
Competency to proceed
Florida’s term is competency to proceed, not competency to stand trial. Fla. Stat. 916.12 defines a defendant as incompetent where they lack sufficient present ability to consult with counsel with a reasonable degree of rational understanding, or lack a rational as well as factual understanding of the proceedings.
The statute lists the factors the report must address: appreciating the charges or allegations, appreciating the range and nature of possible penalties, understanding the adversarial nature of the legal process, disclosing pertinent facts to counsel, manifesting appropriate courtroom behavior, and testifying relevantly. Every one gets its own section in our reports, because 916.115 conditions payment on exactly that.
Sentencing mitigation
Psychosocial history, trauma exposure, cognitive limitations, and psychiatric history documented as grounds for a downward departure. This is the most records-intensive evaluation we perform and the one where getting the complete file early matters most.
Violence risk assessment
Structured professional judgment and actuarial instruments applied to bail, supervised release, conditional release, and sentencing questions.
Criminal responsibility and the insanity defense
Retrospective work. The question is mental state at the time of the alleged offense, not today.
Fla. Stat. 775.027 presumes sanity and makes insanity an affirmative defense. The defendant carries the burden by clear and convincing evidence, which is a heavier standard than most civil matters and heavier than many attorneys assume when they first raise it. The report has to reconstruct mental state from records, collateral interviews, and examination. A current diagnosis is not an answer to the question.
Psychosexual and sexually violent predator evaluations
Sexual behavior patterns and recidivism risk for sexual offense proceedings and civil commitment matters.
Competency to waive Miranda rights
Whether the waiver was knowing, intelligent, and voluntary given the defendant’s cognitive and psychiatric functioning at the time of custody. Often decisive in suppression, and frequently overlooked until late.
Family Court: Parenting Plans, Time-sharing, And Social Investigations
Florida stopped using “custody” and “visitation” in 2008. If a psychologist is selling you a “custody evaluation,” they are using out-of-state vocabulary.
Under Fla. Stat. 61.13 the terms are parenting plan and time-sharing. The instrument a judge in the 15th Circuit orders is a social investigation under Fla. Stat. 61.20, governed by Florida Family Law Rule of Procedure 12.363, titled “Evaluation of Minor Child.”
That rule matters for a reason attorneys care about: it lets any party request a second evaluation only on good cause shown that further examination would be in the best interests of the minor child. Courts discourage serial evaluations. You usually get one credible shot, which is an argument for doing it thoroughly rather than cheaply.
Social investigation
Interviews with both parents and the children, home visits, collateral contacts with teachers and treating providers, psychological testing where indicated, and a written report addressing the statutory factors under 61.13(3).
Parental capacity
A single-parent assessment where the question is one parent’s psychological functioning and parenting capacity rather than a comparison between two households.
Attachment and bonding
Used in dependency and relocation matters where the strength and quality of the parent-child relationship is the disputed issue.
Our obligation in family work runs to the children, whoever signed the retainer. Dr. Colet holds membership in the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts and the American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children.
Civil Litigation, Personal Injury, And Neuropsychological Assessment
Dr. Lauren Miller is a board-level clinical and forensic neuropsychologist with nearly 20 years in practice, and she is the reason this practice can take cases most forensic groups refer out.
She holds adjunct faculty appointments at the University of Miami and Nova Southeastern University, where she teaches at graduate level and supervises doctoral trainees and post-doctoral fellows. Her litigation consulting work includes analysing opposing experts’ reports and building deposition strategy, which is a different service from producing an evaluation and one plaintiff and defense firms use separately.
Personal and emotional injury
Causation is the whole battle. A diagnosis proves nothing on its own. The report has to connect the event to the symptoms, address pre-existing conditions honestly, and quantify functional impairment and prognosis. Validity and effort measures go in every one of these, because opposing counsel will ask whether you used them.
Neuropsychological and traumatic brain injury
Full battery testing for TBI, motor vehicle accidents, medical negligence, rollover and catastrophic injury. Dr. Colet’s clinical background includes Level 1 Trauma Center work with trauma patients and their families.
Independent medical examination
Compulsory examinations under Florida Rule of Civil Procedure 1.360, for defense and plaintiff.
Guardianship and testamentary capacity
Capacity for guardianship proceedings, and mental competency examinations for wills and powers of attorney. Contested-estate work usually turns on whether the examination happened close enough in time to the instrument.
Psychological autopsy
Retrospective analysis of a decedent’s mental state, used in suicide-related civil litigation and contested insurance matters.
Immigration Psychological Evaluations
Immigration evaluations are the fastest and cheapest forensic product we produce, and the one where the deadline is usually already running when the client calls.
We prepare hardship documentation for extreme and exceptional hardship waivers, political asylum claims, VAWA petitions, spousal abuse cases, U visa applications, same-sex couples hardship waivers, and competency to participate in immigration proceedings.
Dr. Colet evaluates at ICE detention centers and correctional facilities when the client is detained. She holds membership in Physicians for Human Rights.
The evaluation has to satisfy two audiences at once: the clinical presentation has to be documented properly, and the report has to map onto the legal standard the adjudicator applies. A report that reads like a therapy note will not do the second job.
Juvenile Forensic Evaluations
Juvenile work carries a separate DCF training requirement under 916.115, and adult instruments do not transfer.
Competency to proceed in juvenile court, violence and sexual risk assessment for adolescents, sexual behavior assessment, and psychological evaluations in delinquency and dependency proceedings. Adolescent cognitive and emotional development changes what the instruments can support, and the statute treats juvenile forensic competency training as its own certification.
FC PsychExperts has provided child and adolescent psychological evaluations for the Department of Juvenile Justice, ChildNet, Communities Connected for Kids, and on direct court referral.
Who Conducts Your Evaluation
Four doctoral-level clinicians. 78 years of combined forensic practice. Court-appointed across five Florida judicial circuits including the 15th.
Dr. Cathy Colet, Psy.D. Licensed Clinical and Forensic Psychologist, Florida license PY9058, founder of Forensic and Clinical PsychExperts, LLC. Practising since 2008. Her practice runs roughly 75% forensic and 25% clinical. Court-appointed in Florida’s 1st, 15th, 17th, 19th, and 20th judicial circuits. Criminal, family, immigration, and personal injury evaluations. Member of the American Psychological Association, the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts, the Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers, the American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children, and Physicians for Human Rights. Served on the Operation Youth Violence Task Force in West Palm Beach County. Her CV, dated April 2026, is published on her bio page.
Dr. Lauren Miller. Clinical and Forensic Neuropsychologist. Nearly 20 years as clinician, consultant, lecturer, and writer. Adjunct faculty at the University of Miami and Nova Southeastern University. Litigation consulting including opposing-expert analysis and deposition strategy.
Dr. Matthew J. Jalazo. Licensed psychologist in full-time forensic practice for fifteen years.
Dr. Christopher J. Beltran. Licensed Forensic Psychologist, over twenty-five years in criminal and family law forensic practice.
Frequently asked questions
How much does a forensic psychological evaluation cost in Palm Beach County?
It depends on the evaluation type and, more than anything, the records volume. We quote in writing before you commit, and we recommend you ask every evaluator you are considering for a written fee schedule rather than accepting a verbal estimate. If the court appoints the expert instead, the 15th Judicial Circuit pays a flat fee per evaluation under Administrative Order 2.601-10/21 and you pay nothing directly. Health insurance does not cover forensic evaluation in either case, because it is legal work rather than clinical treatment.
Who pays for a court-ordered evaluation?
It depends on the path. If the county’s Court Psychology office handles it, costs are determined by the presiding judge and taxed to the case. If the court appoints a private expert from the circuit’s contracted list, the circuit pays at AO 2.601 rates. If your attorney retains an expert independently, you pay directly and up front. Ask your attorney which of the three is happening before you agree to anything.
What if the evaluation hurts my case?
Then it hurts your case, and you find out before opposing counsel does. A forensic psychologist’s duty runs to accuracy, not to the party who paid. That is what makes the report admissible and what lets it survive cross-examination. Attorneys who retain us for a case assessment sometimes stop there and never file the report, which is a legitimate use of a privately retained expert and one of the real advantages over a court appointment.
How long does a forensic evaluation take?
[MOCK] 21 business days from the last of: signed engagement, cleared retainer, complete records received, and final interview completed. Rush scheduling is available at a premium. If your competency hearing is calendared, say so first, because Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.210(b) sets the final hearing no later than 45 days from the motion.
How do I check whether an evaluator is qualified under the new Florida rules?
Ask which Department of Children and Families trainings they completed and when. Fla. Stat. 916.115 requires initial and annual forensic evaluator training for court-appointed work, and evaluators on the list as of July 1, 2024 had until July 1, 2026 to complete the annual training. Then check the DCF statewide evaluator list, verify the Florida license number with the Department of Health, and for a 15th Circuit criminal appointment ask whether they hold a contract with the circuit.
Do you have to be located in Hypoluxo to work on my case?
No, and nobody is. Hypoluxo covers 0.6 square miles with fewer than 2,700 residents. What matters is Florida licensure, current DCF training status, and whether the psychologist has been qualified as an expert in the circuit hearing your case. Dr. Colet has been court-appointed in the 15th Judicial Circuit since 2008 and our Jupiter office is about 25 miles from Hypoluxo.
Can a forensic evaluation be done by telehealth?
Sometimes. Immigration hardship evaluations and some civil matters can be conducted remotely where the legal context permits it. Competency to proceed and criminal responsibility evaluations should be conducted in person, because behavioral observation is part of the data and opposing counsel will make an issue of it if it is missing.
What is the difference between a forensic psychologist and a clinical psychologist?
The client. A clinical psychologist treats a patient and advocates for that patient’s wellbeing. A forensic psychologist evaluates a person to answer a legal question and serves the court. The methods differ too: forensic work uses validity and effort measures, documents every source, and produces a report written to be attacked. A clinical evaluation submitted into evidence usually fails on the first Daubert challenge.