Fake Bad Scale
In a number of previous blogs, I have made reference to the invalidity of the Fake Bad Scale developed by Dr. Paul Lees-Haley. Most recently, a trial judge in the circuit court of the thirteenth judicial circuit for Hillsborough County, Florida, ruled that the test or scale cannot reliably determine the existence of malingering or accurately measure the magnitude and to permit an expert to use the FBS scale to support his opinion would be prejudicial.
The Court therefore granted plaintiffs’ motion to strike or limit the testimony of the defense expert and prohibited him from using the Fake Bad Scale as an objective measure of effort, malingering or over-reporting of symptoms to bolster his opinion that the plaintiff was not credible nor truthful.
The Court found “that unlike every other scale in the MMPI-II, there is no scoring or administration manual for the FBS, and the above recommendations and cautions published by the University of Minnesota press for its use, indicate to the Court that FBS is not an objective measurement of effort, malingering or over-reporting of symptoms. The Court concludes that the FBS is very subjective and dependent on the interpretation of the person using or interpreting it. There is no definitive scoring because the scoring has to be adjusted up and down based on the circumstances and there is a high degree of probability for false positives.”