Are you a Faker?
Posted by
Christina MedlinMarch 24, 2008 1:30 PMTags:
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Insurance companies and their lawyers have begun using the Fake Bad Scale (FBS) Test to determine if injured people are faking their pain from car accidents.
Expert witnesses for the defense/insurance companies began using the test more often after the test was added to the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI).The MMPI is often used to diagnose and treat patients in mental-health facilities.
The test created by a Paul Lees-Haley, a defense expert witness, says that the FBS test catches more subtle forms of non-credible symptom reporting and that the FBS can be helpful in cases where someone with a mild or non-existent brain injury is trying to appear seriously dysfunctional or disabled but not psychotic.
The test consists of 43 true-false statements. Such as: My sex life is satisfactory. I am troubled by attacks of nausea and vomiting. I am bothered by an upset stomach several times a week. I have nightmares every few nights. About a third of the questions relate to physical symptoms; there are questions about stress, sleep disturbance, and low energy. There is also a batch of questions related to denial of bad behavior. If you answer true to the questions, the test-taker earns two points toward their total score that marks a person as a possible faker/malingerer. Those test-takers, whose total score is more than 20, are said to be lying about their symptoms.
Critics such as James Butcher argue that the test identifies too many real victims as fakers or malingerers and is prejudicial toward women. A study conducted by Butcher found that the scale classified an unusual amount of true psychiatric inpatients as fakers. Butcher contends that is highly unlikely that so many psychiatric patients misled doctors.
The FBS test has been used by Haliburton, Inc. to deny truck drivers in Iraq disability benefits. However in some personal injury cases the test has been because the validity of the test has not been demonstrated to the court, moreover it is the role of the jury to determine the credibility of a witness not a test. A right to trial by jury is a fundamental right and can not be replaced by a test of any sort.