The False Litigant Syndrome: "Nobody Would Say that Unless It was the Truth"

Authors

Alan Scheflin, Santa Clara University School of LawFollow
Daniel Brown

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

Winter 1999

Abstract

In this article we intend to focus on the narrow but increasingly more signif icant issue of retractors in malpractice actions against therapists. It is generally believed that people do not make confessions unless they are actually guilty. It is also generally believed that retractors who recant their earlier statements must now be telling the truth. Courts have allowed expert testimony to be admitted on the issue of why people will falsely confess. In this paper we argue that expert testimony on why people falsely recant should also be admissible.

Automated Citation

Alan Scheflin and Daniel Brown, The False Litigant Syndrome: "Nobody Would Say that Unless It was the Truth" , 27 J. Psychiatry & L. 649 (1999),
Available at: https://digitalcommons.law.scu.edu/facpubs/108