The Fake Bad Scale and Malingering Claims
Lawyers USA published an article last week entitled Defense experts using controversial 'malingering' test.
The author is continuing a series of criticisms leveled at Dr. Paul Lees Haley who is the creator of the Fake Bad Scale. He uses it to categorize personal injury victims as "malingerers" and "fakes." The fake bad scale was created in 1991 by Dr. Paul Lees-Haley, a neuropsychologist in Woodland Hills, Calif. who testifies as an expert witness for the defense.
Since the test recently gained acceptance by the University of Minnesota (the author of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, or MMPI scales), Lees-Haley's Fake Bad Scale is receiving clout. Clout, according to leading doctors and lawyers, is false and misleading.
A person scores a point for answering questions positively. The fake bad scale is a series of 43 true or false questions such as "I have very few headaches," "I have nightmares every few nights" and "My sex life is satisfactory."
Each response of a symptom adds a point toward the total score.
A total score of 23 out of 43 would be considered a "high score" and should "raise suspicions of over-reporting of symptoms," said Dr. Manfred Greiffenstein, a proponent of the test. He added that it would be virtually impossible for anyone who is not exaggerating to score 30 or higher.
However, critics note that the cut-off score has changed. The author previously recommended a cut-off of 20, while others have suggested a cut-off score of 26 for women.
Greiffenstein acknowledged that the test is scored on a "sliding scale."
A leading critic of the test, Dr. James Butcher, PhD, a senior author of the MMPI-2 and a professor at University of Minnesota, said that the fake bad scale does not meet the standards set by other MMPI-2 scales and "greatly overestimates" malingering.
As lawyers, Daubert and evidentiary challenges are raised as to the use and misuse of the Fake Bad Scale.
