Live webinar presented by Raj V. Patel, MD, FACEP, FAAEM
July 9, 2026, 12:30pm
90 min of CLE credit anticipated
Medical records can contain critical information for understanding a client’s history, functioning, diagnoses, trauma exposure, and support needs—but many attorneys receive thousands of pages of records with little guidance on how to interpret them. In this webinar, Dr. Raj Patel will help criminal defense attorneys develop practical tools for reviewing and understanding medical records commonly encountered in criminal cases.
As part of our neurodiversity webinar series, this program will explain the structure and organization of medical records, common terminology and abbreviations, and how to identify whether records may be incomplete or missing key sources of information. The presentation will also focus on strategies for locating information relevant to mitigation development, including mental health history, developmental concerns, cognitive functioning, substance use, trauma, medications, behavioral observations, and prior diagnoses.
Special attention will be given to recognizing indicators of neurodiversity—including ADHD, autism, learning disabilities, and other developmental or cognitive differences—that may not be clearly labeled in the records but can have significant implications for representation and mitigation. Attendees will leave with a stronger framework for navigating medical records efficiently and using them more effectively in client advocacy.
Registration:
This program is part of the 2026 IDS Forensic Science Education Series. The webinars will be presented monthly and are free to attend. Use this link to register for all webinars in the series and attend any that are of interest.
Presenter:
Dr. Raj Patel is a board-certified physician with broad clinical experience spanning pediatrics, adult medicine, healthcare administration, patient advocacy, and medical consulting. Over the course of his career, Dr. Patel has personally cared for over 52,000 patients, ranging from critically ill infants born as early as 26 weeks’ gestation to adults well over 100 years old. His pediatric experience includes children with a wide spectrum of acute and chronic medical conditions.
In addition to his clinical work, Dr. Patel has held academic appointments at multiple university health systems, where he taught and mentored healthcare professionals while contributing to quality improvement and systems-based practice. His consulting expertise includes quality-of-care reviews, standards-of-care analysis, and patient-facing pre-litigation and litigation support, bringing clarity to complex medical issues for patients, families, attorneys, and organizations alike.
Dr. Patel has served as a medical expert witness across a wide range of civil and criminal matters, including adult and pediatric homicide, stabbings, shootings, DUI/DWI, felony child abuse, medical malpractice, standards of care, field sobriety testing, wrongful death, illicit substances, assault on a government official, and numerous other complex cases. He has provided expert opinions and testimony on behalf of both plaintiffs and defendants across various jurisdictions, offering objective, evidence-based medical analysis independent of the retaining party. His work consistently focuses on translating complex clinical and forensic medical issues into clear, accurate findings for use by counsel and the court.