PUBLIC ARTICLES (Free): by Michael G. Brock   Top Ten Ways to Sabotage Your Driver License Appeal (Newly Added Article) I once had a teacher in high school who had a standard response for students who complained about the quality of education they were getting (and in those days the quality of public education was substantially better than it is today). He would say that, while he couldn't speak for the quality or competence of the other teachers in the school, or, for that matter, the nation, he had found that no matter how hard he tried it was impossible for him to prevent the interested student from learning. I sometimes steal that line when talking to client's who complain about the quality of therapy or self-help they are receiving or have received. I say that, no matter how hard I try, I've found it impossible to prevent the motivation patient from getting well. Click here to View this Article The Michigan Alcohol Screening Test: Still an Excellent Instrument (Newly Added Article) Determining what constitutes alcohol or drug dependence in the modern age can be a bit murky, especially since problems tend to emerge at a much earlier stage today than when I began doing treatment in the 1970's. In those days you could have five or six drunk driving arrests and still have a driver's license. People usually went for treatment because they were suffering medical consequences, such as liver or heart disease, pancreatitis, bleeding ulcers, or other such symptoms of advanced alcohol/drug addiction. Click here to View this Article Rules Are Rules (Newly Added Article) Recently, when discussing a driver's license appeal case with Attorney Matt Zick, he told me that when he goes to a DAAD hearing with a client it is his custom, at the end of the hearing, to bring out and read a copy of R 257.313, Standards for issuance of a license. Rule 13 (1) (a) requires the petitioner to prove all of the following [listed below] by clear and convincing evidence. Click here to View this Article Go Strong Or Go Home (Newly Added Article) There are times when someone is simply not ready to attend a driver license appeal hearing, and that situation presents a challenge for both the attorney and the evaluator. The attorney has to decide whether or not he or she wants to take the client before a hearing officer that is almost certain to rule against them. The evaluator faces the same dilemma with the client who is not ready to go for a hearing. Do you give them an evaluation that is certain to send them to their doom, or advise them to wait and try again when they are better prepared? I would generally choose the later course, but some people have their minds made up to try and can't be dissuaded. If the client is not represented by counsel and will fare poorly, I can at least tell them they would be wise to consult an attorney. Click here to View this Article Driver License Restoration Is Counterintuitive One of the more rewarding aspects of my practice is driver license restoration evaluations for people who have lost their license though drinking and driving and are appealing to the DAAD to get it back. As attorneys all know, the process is a difficult one, and requires the ability of the client to demonstrate clear and convincing evidence that he or she has been sober/abstinent at least a year and has high probability of remaining so. They don't all have to be committed members of AA to achieve this; sometimes it is sufficient to show that there has been a substantial change in lifestyle sufficient to escape the gravitational… Click here to View this Article False Allegations of Sexual Abuse: What Can Be Done Over the past few years I have published several articles about the prevalence of false allegations of sexual abuse in child custody cases. The purpose of these articles has been to heighten the awareness of mental health professions, lawyers, the judiciary and the general public regarding these allegations, and to cite the research regarding how to differentiate true from false allegations of abuse. During this time, however, very little has changed; the same allegations are made in the same way, with more or less the same results. The typical scenario… Click here to View this Article Therapy Court Somewhere in America, today, somewhere in Michigan, or most likely, in several places in Michigan, court is in session. The presiding judge is not really a judge and has no legal training. He is not even a lawyer, nor has he made any effort to study the applicable … Click here to View this Article Current Standards for Driver License Renewal Evaluations. The New SUBSTANCE ABUSE EVALUATION (ALCOHOL AND DRUGS) AND REQUEST FOR HEARING requests far more information than previously sought by evaluators handling these cases. It also affords hearing officers the authority to reach conclusions about clients they have not done sufficient evaluation to assess, such as mental health diagnosis and its impact on sobriety. Moreover, they may not be qualified to offer an opinion on the subject if they had. Since the opinions issued by these officers do not contain their credentials, or even their first names, it is hard to know what they are qualified to determine. However, in addition to the information traditionally asked for in substance abuse evaluations, the DAAD is currently requiring... Click here to View this Article Hypothetical Questions For Cross Examining Forensic Interviewers Recently I was asked by an attorney in another state to provide some potential questions for cross-examining mental health experts in a sex abuse allegation case. The persons being interviewed were the treating therapist, whose recommendation was based solely on the mother's allegation of abuse, and someone who had been hired to do an “extended” post-forensic interview. Both of these tactics are still commonly employed by prosecutors or others involved in the forensic interviewing process when they are not happy with the evidence obtained through legitimate means. The fact that this process of incorporating sexist and intentionally biased evidence into legitimate legal process is still routine should give anyone genuinely concerned about achieving due process for men accused of these crimes the willies. It does me. Of course, these represent possible questions and could be reworded or rephrased to suit the needs of the case… Click here to View this Article