Mohr, J. W.

English

York University, Osgoode Hall Law School

Osgoode Hall Law School of York University Osgoode Digital Commons Articles & Book Chapters Faculty Scholarship 1977 Book Review: Forensic Psychiatry: A Practical Guide for Lawyers and Psychiatrists, by Robert L. Sadoff J. W. Mohr Osgoode Hall Law School of York University, mohr@fake.osgoode.yorku.ca Source Publication: Canadian Bar Review. Volume 55, Number 2 (1977), p. 395-397. Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.osgoode.yorku.ca/scholarly_works This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License. Recommended Citation Evans, J. M. "Book Review: Forensic Psychiatry: A Practical Guide for Lawyers and Psychiatrists, by Robert L. Sadoff." Canadian Bar Review 55.2 (1977): 395-397. This Book Review is brought to you for free and open access by the Faculty Scholarship at Osgoode Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Articles & Book Chapters by an authorized administrator of Osgoode Digital Commons. 19771	Book Reviews 395and in the possible objectives that its technicality will render itintelligible only to a reader who is as familiar with the subjectas the author .Mr. Monet hit the first of the hurdles. The original versionof his book was completed in 1971 shortly before the abolitionof estate and gift taxation at the federal level. He persevered .The book was published in its original form and has now beenextensively rewritten and updated to January 1975 . It attemptssuccessfully to outline the methods by which a taxpayer can soarrange his, assets that he will be able to protect them and tobenefit from them in his lifetime and ensure their disposition withthe minimum erosion on his death. The methods most commonlyused and the taxation consequences and implications of - eachare, considered. The work is not, and was not intended to be, atreatise for specialist professionals. It is aimed at the intelligentlayman but the level of discussion is sufficiently high to justifyits use as an introductory work for students and practitioners.The contents include a summary of the impact of capitalgains taxation, succession duty and gift tax and there are chapterson lifetime gifts, the use of private companies; the methods ofdisposing of commercial and professional interests, deferredincome plans, life insurance, wills, valuation, partnership ofacquests and tax havens . In addition, there are many short but,generally, clear and accurate notes of cases, a few forms and anumber of appendices dealing mainly with qualified investmentsfor deferred income plans.There have been some significant changes in the IncomeTax Act and in the relevant provincial legislation since the workwas published but these affect only a small part of the contents .Inevitably, also, there are a few statements with which one mighttake issue. Overall, it is a good book and one which deserves tobe kept alive by regular supplements or new editions .MAURICE C. CULLITY*Forensic Psychiatry . A Practical Guidé for Lawyers and Psy-chiatrists . By ROBERT L. SADOFF . Springfield, Ill . : CharlesC. Thomas . 1975 . Pp . xiii, 251 . ($14.50 U.S.)The title indicates that Professor .Sadoff wants this book to bea practical guide for lawyers and psychiatrists. This is an -ambitious* Maurice C . Cullity, of Osgoode Hall Law School, York University,Toronto .396	LA REVUE DU BARREAU CANADIEN [VOL. LVobjective and presupposes that the two professions share acommon objective. Since Professor Sadoff is a psychiatrist mostsubjects are treated on the basis of the training and experienceof a psychiatrist . It therefore has a good deal to say to psychiatristswho do not have the background and experience which ProfessorSadoff has. A review in this journal however, should focus on theusefulness of a publication to lawyers . There is a very real problemof language and communication in this area and although thebook can be seen as an invitation to lawyers to get some under-standing of the practices of forensic psychiatrists and their lan-guage, the meaning of terminology remains a formidable obstacle.The first chapter Psychiatry and the Lawyer will be toodifficult for many practicing lawyers without a psychiatric guidestanding by . Listings of diagnostic categories with only summaryexplanations are bound to reinforce the lawyer's discomfort andhe may stop reading there. Professor Sadoff attempted to constructa coherent text which is useful for the classroom since he toucheson most of the important interaction points between law andpsychiatry . The practising lawyer will be more at home and gainmore benefit from consulting specific chapters such as Chapters3 and 4 which draw the lawyer's attention to what is involvedin the process of psychiatric consultation. Even though variousjurisdictions have different arrangements (another obstacle fora practical guide that is not confined to one jurisdiction) thereare basic considerations which have to be kept in mind to gainsome value from psychiatric consultation . Even these chaptersshould not be read so much for gaining substantive informationthat can be applied to particular cases, but they can assist inmaking a decision whether psychiatric consultation is going tobe helpful and what is involved . In any case any lawyer wouldbe a fool to act as his own psychiatric consultant . The variouschapters can also be of help to him to challenge oversimplifica-tions and fallacious deductions which may be made by consultantson the other side .Any lawyer who seeks clear and specific guidance will bedisappointed by the book. He should not even seek it from theexpert himself since the responsibility for the meaning and useof the information in the legal process must remain with him.The most important contribution that the book can make is toraise the awareness that in regard to many forms of behaviourcommon-sense deductions are inadequate and often misleading .The role of the psychiatrist and the lawyer are not andshould not be the same. The lawyer does not have to understand1977]	Revue des Livres 397the details of psychiatric thinking, practice and language . Whathe does have to understand is that in many situations in whichhe is involved there are crucial human factors, the understandingof which may change the _legal position of a case significantly.Concepts such as responsibility, intent, competency, let aloneinsanity and mental disorder do link law and psychiatry in veryimportant ways and counsel who ignores information which mayshed light on a particular problem does a disservice to his client.Thus, although the book is written from the standpoint of apsychiatrist and at points difficult for lawyers to follow it is fairlyrepresentative of the position of forensic psychiatrists in practiceand therefore indicative of what the lawyer may and may not ex-pect from a consultation. No book in this "area can really be prac-tical in the sense that one can look up the information one needs .In this sense there are not any practical law books for psychiatristseither . It is in the nature of both professions that book knowledgeis insufficient for any kind of practice . Psychiatrists should notonly be viewed as possible expert witnesses, they can in 'manycases be much more useful to the lawyer in shedding some lighton the meaning of human behaviour in particular situations whichcan assist the lawyer in the general conduct of his case .3. W. 1VICHx*Legal Obligation . By J. C. SMITH. Toronto & Buffalo : Universityof Toronto Press . 1976. Pp . 245 . (No Price Given)The technicalities .of the law are mundane matters, to be dealtwith by plumbers, rather than by Pericles . The nature of legalobligation is different . It goes to the very core of jurisprudentialinvestigation . In this book, Professor Smith (who has longevidenced philosophical leanings, even in his writing on torts),rejects all previous attempts at providing an explanation, andputs forward his own novel theory . He states' what an adequatetheory of legal obligations should provide, having suggestedearlier in the first chapter why previously expounded theories orattitudes were inadequate .What Professor Smith is endeavouring to achieve is anexposition of the intrinsic nature of law, by and through thenotion of legal obligation, without any encumbrance from the* 7. W. Mohr, of Osgoode Hall Law, School, York University, Toronto.1 P. 21 .

Book Review: Forensic Psychiatry: A Practical Guide for Lawyers and Psychiatrists, by Robert L. Sadoff

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Book Review: Forensic Psychiatry: A Practical Guide for Lawyers and Psychiatrists, by Robert L. Sadoff

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York University, Osgoode Hall Law School