Test to Spot Liars Takes Center Stage in Personal Injury Cases
Expert witnesses are citing a test designed to spot those who are faking their pain in hundreds of court cases, prompting debate about its reliability.
The so-called Fake Bad Scale was added to the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory last year, leading to its increasing use by expert witnesses in personal injury cases, the Wall Street Journal reports (sub. req.). The MMPI is often used to diagnose and treat patients at mental-health facilities.
The 43-question test was created by psychologist Paul Lees-Haley, who often works as an expert witness for the defense, the story explains. He tested the questionnaire on three groups: malingering personal-injury litigants, who had an average score of 27.6; people told to fake emotional distress, who had an average score of 25; and injured litigants, who had an average score of 15.7. He concluded that those who score 20 or above may be lying about their symptoms.
A false answer to questions such as “My sex life is satisfactory,” or “I seldom or never have dizzy spells,” can earn a point toward malingering.
A leading critic is plaintiffs lawyer Dorothy Clay Sims in Ocala, Fla., who has written guides on how to challenge the results and is seeking to get the test removed from the MMPI. Another is retired psychologist James Butcher, whose found that more than 45 percent of psychiatric patients he studied had Fake Bad Scale scores of 20 or more, and that women had higher scores than men. He contends it is unlikely so many psychiatric patients misled doctors.
“Virtually everyone is a malingerer according to this scale,” Butcher told the newspaper. This is great for insurance companies, but not great for people.”
