Williams Forensic Mental Health Services

Martin H. Williams, Ph.D., with offices in Northern and Southern California, is an experienced psychological expert who has given sworn expert testimony over 250 times in the United States and abroad. Dr. Williams has consulted on over 1000 licensing board, civil (state and federal) and criminal matters and has practiced as a licensed psychologist in California for over 45 years.

Dr. Williams also holds the Interjurisdictional Practice Certificate issued by the Association of State and Provincial Psychology Boards, which provides him privileges to practice in numerous states outside of California.

Dr. Williams has never failed to qualify as an expert in a matter for which he has been retained. He has served as an approved expert by the California Board of Registered Nursing and the California Board of Pharmacy.

Services

Dr. Williams offers psychological expertise and testimony on the following matters:

• Competency to stand trial/insanity defense
• Fitness to Practice Evaluations for California licensing boards, including Medical, Psychology, Behavioral Sciences, Pharmacy, Chiropractic, Dental, Registered Nursing, Vocational Nursing.
• Psychotherapy malpractice, ethics, boundaries, risk management, standard of care and negligence
• Evaluations of emotional damage deriving from personal injury, sexual or racial harassment and sexual abuse (including in psychotherapy) using objective psychological assessment devices (MMPI-3, MCMI-IV)
• Evaluation of risk of criminal recidivism
• Sexually Violent Predator Evaluations (California Welfare and Institutions Code, Section 6600)
• Mentally Disordered Offender Evaluations (California Penal Code 2960)
• Immigration/deportation evaluations (Approved evaluator, San Francisco Region, Immigration and Customs Enforcement-ICE, Enforcement and Removal Operations-ERO)
• Divorce evaluations/fitness of adult caregivers
• Dependency Court/fitness to parent
• Employment/fitness for duty
• Church related abuse
• Malingering or concealing psychological problems
• Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
• Borderline personality disorder
• Substance abuse
• Testamentary capacity
• Pre-trial and sentencing evaluations
• Security Clearance Appeals, including the National Security Agency, the Central Intelligence Agency, and the Departments of Defense and Energy.

Litigation Support Services

Expert Testimony:

• Standard of Care in Psychotherapy and Healthcare Malpractice
• Litigation
• Sexual Harassment
• Sexual Abuse
• Ethics
• Psychotherapist-patient sexual involvement
• Physician-patient sexual involvement
• Clergy/Teacher sexual involvement within trust relationships
• Inappropriate sexual contact in hospital and clinic settings
• Boundary Violations
• Abuse of Transference
• Sexual Harassment in Employment Settings
• Psychological Evaluations for Licensing Board Matters, including:
• Psychology, Medical, Counseling, Social Work, Nursing, Chiropractic, Dentistry, etc.
• Evaluation of Claims of Psychological Damages-Written Reports or Testimony (IME)
• Objective Assessment of Malingering
• Defense and Plaintiff

Areas of Expertise

Additional Expertise:

Emotional Damage Claims (including Workplace Harassment), Sexual Abuse, Sex Therapy, Disability, Managed Care & HMOs, Psychotherapy Standard of Care, Psychotherapy Malpractice, Housing Discrimination, Police Board of Rights Hearing, Priest Abuse, Date Rape, Child Molestation, NGRI, NGI, Restoration of Sanity Hearing, Sexual/Racial Harassment, Murder (Battered Woman Syndrome, False Confession, Inability to Form Intent), Sexually Violent Predator, Fitness for Duty/Security Clearance.

Profile

A University of California, Berkeley psychologist, Dr. Williams is respected for his work on psychotherapy ethics and malpractice, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), professional risk management, fitness for duty, assessment of emotional harm, malingering, sentencing mitigation and sexual harassment. In terms of criminal work, Dr. Williams currently evaluates Sexually Violent Predators and Mentally Disordered Offenders, is a court ordered criminal evaluator for the Superior Court of California, and has served as a forensic evaluator for the California Board of Parole Hearings. In addition to his forensic work, Dr. Williams has served ten years as Peer Review chair for a psychiatry department at a major urban medical center. Dr. Williams specializes in the evaluation of patients with Borderline Personality Disorder, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Substance Abuse and Malingering.

Dr. Williams has held an elected position on the Board of Directors of Psychologists in Independent Practice, a Division of the American Psychological Association. Dr. Williams served as the official representative of that Division to the Ethics Code Task Force of the American Psychological Association, the group that created the 2002 revision of the Ethics Code. Dr. Williams has offered seminars on ethics and risk management at meetings of the American Psychological Association, the American College of Forensic Psychology, the Nevada Psychological Association, Lehigh Valley Psychological Association and the American Academy of Psychotherapists. Dr. Williams has served as a consultant to the City of Campbell, California Hostage Negotiation Team, and he currently serves on the State Bar of California, Lawyer Assistance Program, Oversight Committee.

Dr. Williams is the author of over 30 published articles and book chapters that have appeared in professional publications and has completed a six year term as Associate Editor and Editor of the national professional publication, The Independent Practitioner.

Areas Served

All States

Professional Experience

Dr. Williams has testified 241 times as of March 2022. He has over 80 professional publications and presentations to professional organizations.

Licenses

California Psychologist PSY 4642
Virginia Psychologist 810005269

Legal Experience & Services

Expert Testimony in Criminal Court

• Evaluation of Competency to Stand Trial: Dr. Williams uses a standardized competency measure, the ECST-R, which carefully and systematically walks the defendant through his or her understanding of the various aspects of the courtroom process, assesses his or her ability to cooperate with the attorney in an effective manner, and assesses for feigning incompetence. The ECST-R is predicated on the Dusky standard. Dr. Williams has also testified in challenges to restoration of competency, involving individuals who have remained incompetent even after State Hospital treatment.
• Evaluation of Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity: Dr. Williams evaluates defendants for the insanity defense, being mindful of both the M'Naughton and ALI standards. In addition, according to its relevance to the jurisdiction, Dr. Williams can offer testimony regarding Mental State at the Time of the Offense as well as Diminished Capacity in jurisdictions where this is considered acceptable expert testimony.
• Mental health diversion: Dr. Williams has evaluated and submitted reports on individuals seeking pretrial mental health diversion under a relatively new California law. This law applies to individuals whose criminal behavior was exclusively the result of treatable mental health conditions.
• Psychological mitigation of criminal charges: A psychological evaluation of a criminal defendant can be an important aspect of a plea negotiation. In many cases, the individual charged with the crime does not fit the expectable profile of the offender and may not warrant the same disposition. A thorough psychological assessment can assist the district attorney in understanding the defendant's motivation for the crime and likelihood of re-offending. In other cases, mitigation is not appropriate. Dr. Williams has assisted criminal defense attorneys in helping their clients understand the difficulty of their cases, the likely viewpoint of the jury, and why a trial should be avoided.
• Restoration of sanity: Dr. Williams has testified in numerous cases in which the NGI individual has been treated at a state hospital wishes to be restored to sanity and released to the community. Dr. Williams evaluates patients at state hospitals throughout California.
• Evaluation of Recidivism Risk: Dr. Williams uses standardized measures to assess the risk of reoffence and of violent reoffence. Dr. Williams employs the following measures to make these determinations: LS/CMI (recidivism risk), HCR-20 (violence risk), PCL-R (psychopathy and violence risk) and the Static 99R (risk of sexual reoffense). All of these measures are valid predictors of their respective target criteria.
• Evaluation of Sexually Violent Predators: California law provides for psychological evaluations to determine whether an individual is a Sexually Violent Predator (SVP) as defined by Welfare and Institutions Code Section 6600. Typically, the centerpiece of such an evaluation is a determination of the cause of the individual's prior sexual offenses. If the offenses were the result of a mental disorder, the individual may be legally defined as an SVP, but, if the criminal offenses were not the result of a mental disorder, the SVP statute does not apply. Dr. Williams carries out such evaluations and testifies at SVP trials.

Expert Testimony: Civil

Dr. Williams offers testimony in three broad areas: psychotherapy malpractice, emotional damages and fitness for duty.

• Malpractice: Regarding malpractice, Dr. Williams has testified and consulted for both plaintiff and defense, and in both civil court and before licensing boards, regarding the standard of care in psychotherapy. Issues have included: predicting suicide or dangerousness, boundary violations, dual or multiple relationships, therapist-patient sex, excessive treatment, patient abandonment, therapist drug use, and violation of confidentiality. Dr. Williams brings his broad experience as a psychotherapist, a health care organization manager and an ethics expert to bear on his testimony.
• Emotional Damages (IME): Emotional damage cases have included sexual harassment in the workplace, wrongful termination, date rape, motor vehicle and other personal injury matters and medical malpractice. Attorneys seeking an emotional damages evaluation often refer to them as “IME's” or Independent Medical Evaluations, a term taken from the world of Workers Compensation. The key questions that Dr. Williams has been asked are: “Has the plaintiff been harmed? If so, then what was the cause? If not, why is the plaintiff alleging that harm has occurred?” Three alternatives to the alleged emotional damage claim must always be considered:
That the harm is real but was caused by factors extraneous to the litigation,
That the harm is real but is the result of chronic emotional problems that predated the events at issue in the litigation,
That the harm is being malingered—falsified or exaggerated.

Dr. Williams employs objective psychological testing to augment and verify his clinical observations. Dr. Williams is an expert in the use of the MMPI-3 and the MCMI-IV, as well as in other forms of psychological testing.

• Fitness for Duty: Fitness for duty cases have included testimony to the Los Angeles Police Department as well as to various licensing boards in the State of California. The key question Dr. Williams has been asked is whether the individual in question is emotionally competent to carry out the duties of the license or position that he or she holds. To answer this question Dr. Williams uses interview and objective psychological testing.

Dr. Williams is a highly effective communicator and is able to concisely and clearly explain his findings in ordinary language, without resorting to distracting and unhelpful “psychobabble.”

Affiliations

Member, American College of Forensic Psychology
Member, Ethics Task Force, Division of Independent Practice of the American Psychological Association, 1999-2002
Fellow of the American Psychological Association and the Divisions of Psychotherapy, Independent Practice, Member Division Psychology and Law.
Member, California Association of Hostage Negotiators
Member of the California and Santa Clara County Psychological Associations.
Secretary, Northern California Chapter, Society for the Scientific Study of Sex (1978 to 1979).
Former Founding Member, American Associate of Sex Therapists, Educators and Counselors
Associate Member, California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists

Qualifications

Approved Non-Resident Consultant, State of Nevada Board of Psychology, 2003
Qualification in Professional Psychology, Association of State and Provincial Psychology Boards, 1998 (Certificate number 181)
Interjurisdictional Practice Certificate, Association of State and Provincial Psychology Boards, 2010
Licensed Psychologist in California, 1976 (License number PSY 4642)
Designated Expert Witness, California Board of Registered Nursing, 2006
Listed National Register of Health Service Providers in Psychology, 1977
Certified Sex Therapist by the American Association of Sex Educators, Counselors and Therapists, 1975.

Awards & Honors

Fellow, American Psychological Association, 2008-Present.
Phi Beta Kappa, Summa Cum Laude, UCLA, 1968.
Highest Honors at Graduation, UCLA Department of Psychology, 1968.
Woodrow Wilson Fellow, 1968-1969.

Publications

2013 “Florida Adopts the Daubert Standard for Expert Testimony,” National Psychologist, Fall.
2012 Review: Coping with Psychiatric and Psychological Testimony, Sixth Edition. David Faust (based on the
original work by Dr. Jay Ziskin), Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011 (1119 pages). The National Psychologist, Fall.
2012 “Forensic Skills Workshop: The Role of the Psychologist in Civil and Criminal Litigation,” Invited symposium at the
Annual Meeting of the American College of Forensic Psychology, San Francisco, California, April 20.
2012 “The Pros and Cons of the New Specialty Guidelines for Forensic Psychology,” Invited presentation at the Annual
Meeting of the American College of Forensic Psychology, San Francisco, California, April 20.
2011 “Forensic Skills Workshop: The Role of the Psychologist in Civil and Criminal Litigation,” Invited symposium at the
Annual Meeting of the American College of Forensic Psychology, San Diego, California, April 1.
2010 “Being Right and Still Losing,” article in National Psychologist, 19 (1).
2009 “Post Traumatic Stress Disorder: The Experience of Trauma (Criterion A) is Not Subjective.” Original article
published on the HG Experts website, http:// www.hgexperts.com/article.asp?id=4975
2009 “Forensic Skills Workshop,” American Journal of Forensic Psychology, 27 (4), 5-48. (With co-authors).
2009 “Riveting Book Puts Justice On Trial,” Invited book review, National Psychologist, 18 (3) May/June 2009, p. 24
2009 “Ethics and Law Update,” Invited lecture at the Annual Meeting of the American College of Forensic Psychology,
San Diego, California, March 27.
2009 “Forensic Skills Workshop: The Role of the Psychologist in Civil and Criminal Litigation”, Invited symposium at the
Annual Meeting of the American College of Forensic Psychology, San Diego, California, March 27.
2009 “How Self-Disclosure Got a Bad Name,” Invited comment on O. Zur's, “Psychotherapist Self-Disclosure and
Transparency in the Internet Age,” Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 40 (1), 22-30.
2008 “A Malpractice Ghost Story,” Independent Practitioner, Fall 28 (4), 192-193.
2008 “Ethics and Law Update,” invited lecture at the Annual Meeting of the American College of Forensic Psychology,
San Francisco, California, April 10-13.
2008 “Forensic Skills Workshop: The Role of the Psychologist in Civil and Criminal Litigation”, Invited symposium at the
Annual Meeting of the American College of Forensic Psychology, San Francisco, California, April 10-13.
2008 Mock trial, defense expert, Invited participant at the Annual Meeting of the American College of Forensic Psychology,
San Francisco, California, April 10-13.
2008 “Therapist-Patient Sex Twenty Years Later: A View From the Courtroom,” National Psychologist, March 2008.
2008 “Surviving a Licensing Complaint: What to Do, What Not to Do,” (Book written with four co-authors), Zeig, Tucker
and Theisen Publishers.
2007 “Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Versus Simple Anger: Did the Plaintiff Experience a Trauma or Merely a Grievance?”
Original article published on the Expert Pages website, http://expertpages.com/news/ posttraumatic_stress_disorder.htm
2007 “Risk Management: How Your Malpractice Insurer
Created Testimony Against You,” Symposium at the Annual Meeting of the American Psychological Association, San Francisco, California, August 19.
2007 “Ethics and the Law: Malpractice and Risk Management in Civil Litigation.” Invited lecture at the Annual Meeting of
the American College of Forensic Psychology, Santa Fe, New Mexico, May 3-6.
2007 “Forensic Skills Workshop: The Role Of The Psychologist in Civil and Criminal litigation,” Invited Symposium at the
Annual Meeting of the American College of Forensic Psychology, Santa Fe, New Mexico, May 3-6.
2006 “Killing as a Psychological Service,” National Psychologist, Nov/Dec., 15 (6).
2006 “Ethics and the Law: Update and Overview of the 2002 Ethics Code of the American Psychological Association,”
Invited lecture at the Annual Meeting of the American College of Forensic Psychology, San Francisco, California, March 16-19.
2006 “Forensic Skills Workshop: The Role Of The Psychologist in Civil and Criminal litigation,” Invited Symposium at the
Annual Meeting of the American College of Forensic Psychology, San Francisco, California, March 16-19.
2006 “Testimony Gone Wild: The Disturbing And Surprising Trend Of Idiosyncratic Standard Of Care Testimony,”
Invited Symposium at the Annual Meeting of the American College of Forensic Psychology, San Francisco, California, March 16-19.
2005 “The Nuances of Ethics Compliance: The Distinctions Between The Ethics Code, State Regulations, Standard Of
Care, And Risk Management.” Invited state mandated ethics course presented to the Lehigh Valley Psychological Association, Oct. 7.
2005 “Surviving the Minefield—A Practitioner's Guide to Licensing Boards,” Symposium at Annual Meeting of the American Psychological Association, Washington, DC, August 18-21.
2005 “When Your Family Matters: Consult a Psychologist,” Independent Practitioner, Spring, 25 (2), pp. 63-64.
2005 “Ethics, Law, Malpractice and the Standard of Care”
All day workshop for the Annual Meeting of the Nevada
Psychological Association, Las Vegas, NV, April 29. (Co- presenter).
2005 “Ethics and the Law: Update and Overview of the 2002 Ethics Code of the American Psychological Association,” Invited lecture at the Annual Meeting of the American College of Forensic Psychology, Newport Beach,
California, April 14-17.
2005 “Interactive Skills Workshop: Civil and Criminal,” Invited Symposium at the Annual Meeting of the American College of Forensic Psychology, Newport Beach, California, April
14-17.
2004 “Honoring the Roots of Psychotherapy in Making Ethical Decisions in Contemporary Time,” Invited workshop at 2004 Institute and Conference of the American Academy of
Psychotherapists, Santa Fe, November 13.
2004 “Dual Perspectives on Dual Relationships: Critical Incidents in Nonsexual Boundaries,” Invited Symposium at Annual Meeting of the American Psychological
Association, Honolulu, July 27-August 1.
2004 “Risk Management: Curse or Blessing,” Symposium at Annual Meeting of the American Psychological
Association, Honolulu, July 27-August 1.
2004 “Ethics and the Law” lecture at the Annual Meeting of the American College of Forensic Psychology, San Francisco,
California, April 1-4.
2004 “Forensic Skills: Interactive Workshop” presented at the Annual Meeting of the American College of Forensic
Psychology, San Francisco, California, April 1-4.
2003 Forensic Skills Workshop presented at the Annual Meeting of the American College of Forensic Psychology, Rancho
Mirage, California, April 10-13.
2002 “Multiple Relationships: A Malpractice Plaintiff's Litigation Strategy,” in Dual Relationships and
Psychotherapy by Lazarus, A.A. and Zur, O. (Eds.), New York: Springer, pp. 224-238.
2002 Workshop on Ethics—6-hour presentation on the APA Ethics Code to the Annual Meeting of the Nevada
Psychological Association, Lake Tahoe, NV, May 5. (Co- presenter).
2001 “Ethics Code, Courts and Axis II Pathology—A Menacing Synergy,” Symposium at Annual Meeting of the American
Psychological Association, San Francisco, August 24-28.
2001 “The Question of Psychologists' Maltreatment by State Licensing Boards: Overcoming Denial and Seeking Remedies,” Professional Psychology: Research and
Practice, 32, 341-344.
2001 “Litigation as a Forum for Acting-Out: Malpractice, Disability, Sexual Harassment and Other Civil Claims
Arising from Plaintiffs' Psychopathology,” Symposium at Annual Meeting of American College of Forensic Psychology, Toronto, Ontario, April 26-29. (Chair)
2000 “Violence in the media: a symposium.” (Contributor) American Journal of Forensic Psychiatry, 21, 23-25.
2000 “Protecting Psychologists: Insuring Fair Treatment of SPPA Members by Licensing Boards,” Symposium on
Investigations, Judgments and Sanctions: Flaws Which Can Harm Good Psychologists, at Annual Meeting of the American Psychological Association, Washington, August 4-8.
2000 “Ethics Code at the Millennium: A Poor Choice of Words,” Symposium on Adverse Effects of the APA Ethics Code:
Problems and Solutions, at Annual Meeting of the American Psychological Association, Washington, August 4-8. (Chair)
2000 “Inherent Problems in the APA Ethics Code: Legal and Psychological Perspectives,” Symposium at Annual
Meeting of American College of Forensic Psychology, Newport Beach, California, April 6-9. (Chair)
2000 “Symbolic Thinking as a Unifying Force of Change” by William K. Marek,” Book Review in American Journal of
Forensic Psychology, 18 (3), 89-90.
2000 “APA Ethics Committee Considered Prohibiting Solo Practice,” Independent Practitioner, Winter, 20 (1), 46-49.
2000 “Victimized by ‘Victims:' A Taxonomy of Antecedents of False Complaints Against Psychotherapists,” Professional
Psychology: Research and Practice, 31 (1), 75-81,
1999 “State Boards and State Psychological Associations: A New
Advocacy Role,” Symposium at Annual Meeting of the American Psychological Association, Boston, Aug. 19-24.
1999 “Psychotherapy Malpractice,” Chapter in “Lawyer's Guide to Medical Proof,” Ellen Pall (Ed.) New York: Matthew
Bender Publications
1999 Role of a Psychiatric Outcome Study in a Large Scale Quality Improvement Project, Evaluation and Program
Planning, 22(2), 235-245. [With six co-authors]
1998 “Federal Court May Still Allow ‘Junk Statistics,'” American Psychological Association, Monitor, September.
[With co-author]
1998 “Boundary Violations: The (Inappropriate) Lethal Weapon of Plaintiffs' Attorneys,” Paper presented at the Annual
Meeting of the American College of Forensic Psychology, San Francisco, April 30.
1992 “Exploitation and Inference: Mapping the Damage From Therapist-Patient Sexual Involvement” American
Psychologist, 47 (3), 412-421.

Education

Ph.D. University of California, Berkeley, 1975
B.A. UCLA, 1968 (Summa Cum Laude)