How do you get a court ordered psychological evaluation?

Answer 1

It depends a little on what legal context you're talking about (for example, a custody dispute, a hearing to determine competency to stand trial, an ongoing case to address issues of child abuse/neglect), and whether you want yourself evaluated, or someone else.

So, assuming you are involved in a court case and you want a court-ordered evaluation of yourself, tell your attorney you want a psychological evaluation and consider their advice about whether it's a good idea. If they think it is, they can ask the judge to order it. The judge can say yes or no, based on the case and what the attorney for the other side has to say about it.

If you want a court-ordered evaluation of someone else, the process is pretty much the same but it may be harder to get it ordered (if the other person doesn't want to have it done, or if their attorney thinks it's a bad idea, or the judge doesn't see the point).

If the court *does* order a psychological evaluation, the written report from the evaluation will become part of the record for the court case, and the psychologist may be asked to testify as well. The testing client's attorney will get a copy of the report, which s/he will then copy for the judge and the other attorney. The person who was evaluated may get a written summary of the report, but more likely they will just get verbal feedback from the psychologist.