Best Practices in Medico-Legal Evaluation: Criterion 4 and the Discipline of Proof

Date: April, 29th 2026

Time: 5:00pm - 7:00pm ET

Location: Zoom 

Overview:

As the inaugural installment in the Best Practices in Medico-Legal Evaluation series, this webinar will focus on the rigorous and methodologically defensible evaluation of Criterion 4 (Traumatic Brain Injury )under the Statutory Accident Benefits Schedule (SABS).

Consistent with the guiding philosophy of the Canadian Society of Medical Evaluators (CSME), this session advances an evidence-based, scientist-practitioner framework for medico-legal assessment—anchored in validated methodology, transparent reasoning, and fidelity to authoritative standards. It rejects reliance on clinical lore, inferential leapfrogging, or speculative prognostication in favour of disciplined adherence to contemporaneous scientific guidelines and statutory direction.

Where relevant, evaluative reasoning will be situated within established frameworks and professional consensus standards ensuring that opinions are not only clinically sound but jurisprudentially defensible.

This webinar is designed to reinforce the expert’s acknowledged duty: to provide fair, objective, non-partisan opinion evidence that is methodologically sound, circumscribed by one’s expertise, and responsive to the tribunal’s need for clarity and reliability.

Learning Objectives

By the conclusion of this presentation, participants will be able to:

1. Identify and critically appraise contemporaneous best practice guidelines relevant to the evaluation of Criterion 4 (Traumatic Brain Injury) under the SABS, distinguishing evidence-based standards from outdated or non-validated practices.
2. Articulate the statutory and medico-legal thresholds embedded within Criterion 4, and understand how scientific evidence must be mapped onto legislated criteria without overreach, extrapolation, or diagnostic inflation.
3. Define the respective roles, competencies, and limitations of disciplines commonly engaged in Criterion 4 determinations, including neurology, neuropsychology, and occupational therapy, with particular attention to scope of practice boundaries and evidentiary weight.
4. Differentiate between clinical assessment for treatment purposes and medico-legal assessment for statutory determination, recognizing the distinct epistemological and ethical demands of each context.
5. Apply an integrated, multidisciplinary best practice model for Criterion 4 evaluation, demonstrating how neurology, neuropsychology, and occupational therapy contribute complementary—but not interchangeable—data streams within a coherent and defensible framework.
6. Recognize and mitigate sources of bias and methodological vulnerability that may compromise objectivity in adversarial contexts, including confirmation bias, referral bias, and role contamination.
7. Understand the legal implications of methodological deviation, including how departures from accepted standards may affect admissibility, credibility, and weight of expert evidence before courts or tribunals.

Who Should Attend

This session is essential for clinicians, lawyers, adjudicators, insurers, and stakeholders who believe that:

• Expert opinion must be anchored in evidence, not intuition.
• Statutory interpretation must be informed—but not distorted—by clinical science.
• Multidisciplinary collaboration requires clarity of role and methodological discipline.
• The integrity and sustainability of the medico-legal system depend upon principled adherence to best practices.

In addressing Criterion 4 of the SABS with scientific precision and statutory fidelity, this webinar sets the tone for the series: rigorous, transparent, and uncompromising in its commitment to objectivity.

SPEAKERS

Dr. Cherisse McKay, C. Psych

Dr. Cherisse McKay completed her Ph.D. in Clinical Neuropsychology through the University of Windsor in 2007. She is a registered member in good standing with the College of Psychologists and Behaviour Analysts of Ontario (CPBAO) with approved practice in Clinical Psychology, Clinical Neuropsychology, and Rehabilitation Psychology with children, adolescents, and adults (Registration #4571). Dr. McKay has also completed the Canadian Society of Medical Evaluators (CSME)/Canadian Academy of Psychologists in Disability Assessments (CAPDA) CAT certification program [C-CAT (MB)], as well as earning its designation of Certified Medicolegal Expertise [CMLE(O)] in her purported fields of Clinical Neuropsychology and Clinical Psychology. She was also Co-Chair and working member of the Ontario Psychological Association (OPA) Concussion Working Group and was a contributor to the Ontario Psychological Association’s Guidelines for Remote/Telepractice. She is also currently President of the Hamilton Medical-Legal Society. 

Much of Dr. McKay’s clinical neuropsychological practice has been working with acute and chronic acquired brain injuries in both pediatric and adult populations. This experience has come in rehabilitation hospital- and community-based practice. Dr. McKay has extensive experience in assessing the neurobehavioural and neurocognitive effects of various neurological disorders/diseases, chronic pain, and brain injuries, as well as in the assessment of learning and developmental disabilities, and psychological/mood disorders.

Dr. McKay is Partner of Lifespan Psychological & Neuropsychological Services, a full-service psychology clinic located in Burlington, Ontario.

Dr. Nicholas Cothros,MD, PhD, FRCPC

Dr. Cothros completed his MSc and PhD in neuroscience at the University of Western Ontario, after which he graduated with an MD at the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine at McMaster University. He returned to the University of Western Ontario for residency training in adult neurology and a clinical fellowship in epilepsy and electroencephalography. This was followed by a clinical/research fellowship in adult and paediatric movement disorders at the University of Calgary. 

Dr. Cothros joined the Department of Medicine as an Assistant Professor in the Division of Neurology in 2021. He is cross-appointed in the Department of Psychiatry and in the Department of Pediatrics.

Dr. Cothros' outpatient practice places a special focus on movement disorders, through the Movement Disorder Clinic, affiliated with Queen's University and Kingston Health Sciences Centre. His practice also includes general outpatient neurology. He is a co-founder of the Huntington Disease Clinic, as part of the Department of Medicine and the Department of Psychiatry. He has special interests in device-assisted therapies for Parkinson disease, dystonia, and botulinum toxin injections in the management of movement disorders. He also has clinical interests in behavioural therapies for tic disorders and body-focused repetitive behaviours, for children and adults. His research interests span human motor control and behavioural/cognitive neuroscience.

Dr. Cothros' practice includes on-call neurology and inpatient acute care at Kingston General Hospital, plus tele-neurological care to support physicians in other centres across Southeastern Ontario and Northern Ontario.

Dr. Cothros is the co-lead for the medical school's neurology curriculum, at Queen's University.  He was awarded the Dr. Allison Spiller Neurosciences Teaching Award.

He has been supported by the Young Investigator Award from the Tourette Association of America, the Parkinson Alberta Post-Doctoral Fellowship, the Canadian League Against Epilepsy Post-Graduate Training Fellowship Award, and the Mary Ann Lee Award from the Canadian League Against Epilepsy.

Moderator:

Konstantine Zakzanis, Ph.D, C.Psych, D.E.S.S, C-CAT(MB), CMLE(ON)

Registration Cost: 

Members: $60

Non-members: $95

Registration is open for attendance until Tuesday, April 28, 2026.

This webinar will provide 2 CE Credits for CMLE/ C-CAT

Cancellation policy: Event attendees who cancel their participation no later than April 27, 2026 may receive a refund of their registration fees. No refunds will be granted for cancellations beyond this day.

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