Subjective Test Results

[backwardsbike]

Hi Soc,

All parties are in PA.  Last year we were ordered to a custody evaluation which was carried out by a Master's Level psychologist.  he had us do a number of test.  Some were objective like the MMPI and the Bricklin. Some were subjective like the draw a person test and a sentence completion test.

The evaluator made some of the test results for some of the participants in the evaluation a part of the report.  But, for the most part, he never really interpreted the results or said much about them.

We are now due to go to a full hearing in Septemeber.

1.  Can I have access to all the test results for the purpose of having them evaluated by my own expert?

[socrateaser]

>1.  Can I have access to all the test results for the purpose
>of having them evaluated by my own expert?

You are usually only entitled to reports of an adversarial expert if the reports are actually submitted or otherwise used as evidence in the final report or the expert's testimony. Otherwise, the work product would be privileged as attorney work product. But, here, the court ordered the eval and you probably paid for some or all of it, therefore, it's yours and you should be able to obtain copies of the materials.

Unless there's a statute or rule prohibiting this on grounds of protecting the objectivity of the reporter -- which their may be -- I don't know PA law on the subject.

Can't hurt to ask the evaluator.

[justme73]

Not Soc, but i have some experience with this in florida.

in trying to obtain my records i have found that you have a right to obtain any portion of your part of the evaluation, except the test sheets and scoring, if you just go to the office of the evaluator and sign a release of records.

by law you cannot get a copy of the test sheets and scoring personally, but can, however request that your testing material and evaluator notes be transferred to another lisenced psychologist for review.

in order to obtain any information about the evaluation notes, tests, etc of the other party, requires their consent, of course.