Mental Retardation

From National Legal Aid & Defender Association Cornerstone, Fall 2003
Mental Retardation
A Primer to Cope with Expert Testimony
By I. Bruce Frumkin, Ph.D., ABPP
With increasing frequency, attorneys in civil and criminal cases litigate issues involving intellectual
functioning. As with all forensic assessments in the civil context, no IQ or diagnosis automatically
renders an individual incompetent to execute a will, to consent to treatment, to manage one’s affairs, or
to be caretaker for a minor. Often, a comprehensive assessment of a client’s intellectual functioning is
needed to litigate a variety of these issues. While it is less important for there to be a formal diagnosis of
mental retardation, the clinician integrates any intellectual deficits with relevant psycholegal criteria. The
same model holds true for criminal forensic assessments. Mental retardation per se does not
automatically equate with incompetency to stand trial or insanity. It is important for attorneys to
understand what “intelligence” is, how it is measured, and how the concept of mental retardation can be
misused or misapplied.