Dr. Ken Shulman

A recent judgment from the Ontario Superior Court of Justice (Moore v Getahun, 2014 ONSC 237) has opined on the long-time practice whereby experts submit a draft report to counsel for review.  The court referenced Rule 53.03 of the Rules of Civil Procedure, which is designed to ensure that the expert’s first duty is to the court. No matter who retained the expert, he/she must be objective and not take….

The Stratford Festival has included ‘King Lear’ among this year’s performances.  ‘Lear’, of course, is the poster boy for older adults who use poor judgment in determining how and when to distribute their assets to their children.  The opening of King Lear reveals the King’s intent to divest his kingdom to his three daughters. Similar to many older adults, he “wishes unburdened to crawl toward death”.  However, he adds a….

A Canadian contribution to the commonly used cognitive screening instruments is the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), published by Nasreddine et al in 2005.  Unlike the Mini-Mental State Exam (MMSE) or the clock-drawing test (CDT), the MoCA is designed to detect more subtle impairments of cognition, known clinically as Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI).  Like the MMSE, it is scored out of 30, which can cause a misunderstanding about the severity of….

The capacity to execute a Will, Power of Attorney (POA), manage Property or Personal Care or marry are cognitive tasks determined by an admixture of legal, statutory and clinical guidelines and factors. Hence, the need for a truly collaborative approach to their assessment and legal determination. In the case of testamentary capacity, the legal test is established by case law while the capacity to make POA’s and manage property and personal….