expert Witness Consultation
Dr. Andrew B. Klafter provides expert-witness consultation for attorneys. His forensic work includes consultation regarding psychiatric diagnosis, standards of care, professional responsibility, and the psychological effects of injury, trauma, and family disruption, including psychological effects associated with legal proceedings themselves. He also has the rare qualification of serving as an expert witness for rabbinical courts (Batei Din) during arbitration, dispute adjudication, and other Jewish legal proceedings. His work includes expert diagnostic evaluations, mental capacity and competency evaluations, record review, case conceptualization, expert reports, deposition preparation, and courtroom testimony. He has served as an expert witness and case-review consultant for attorneys representing both plaintiffs and defendants.
Areas of consultation include:
psychiatric and psychotherapy malpractice, standards of care, and professional responsibility
mental competency and decision-making capacity
psychological damages in personal injury and other areas of liability
treatment-related complications and adverse outcomes
guardianship and capacity determinations
parenting fitness and custody disputes
fitness for duty and workplace safety
Forensic Rabbinical Court Consultation (Batei Din)
Dr. Klafter also serves as an expert witness for Rabbinical Courts (Batei Din) in Ohio, New York, New Jersey, and Israel. He has experience working within both civil and religious legal frameworks in cases involving family conflict, divorce, custody disputes, mental health concerns, and questions of professional responsibility arising within religious communities.
His expertise as a forensic mental health evaluator and familiarity with rabbinical court procedure allows him to assist attorneys, to’anim (advocates), and rabbinical courts in matters where mental health expertise, sensitivity to religious and cultural context, and expertise in Jewish legal procedure are required. A frequent area of consultation for Rabbinical Courts involves questions of mental competency, because of its central role in Jewish legal matters related to marriage, divorce, religious conversion, estate planning and wills, inheritance disputes, and other civil matters in which financial or other legal decisions are challenged on the basis of mental competency. These consultations often involve questions about a person’s capacity to participate meaningfully in religious legal proceedings, conduct proper business transactions, or to make binding personal and financial decisions under Jewish law. Dr. Klafter has extensive experience assessing mental competency for such situations, and attesting to his professional opinions in writing and in person before rabbinical judges (dayanim). Dr. Klafter has also provided orientations and served as a liaison to attorneys litigating in rabbinical courts for the first time.