Publications

• Influence: Due or Undue?
• Mental Capacity Assessment - Chapter from Encyclopedia of Elder Care, 4th Edition, 2018
• Undue Influence Assessment in Elder Care - Chapter from Encyclopedia of Elder Care, 4th Edition, 2018
• Undue Influence Worksheet for Police, APS, and Probate Investigators (2002)

Specialties & Experience of this Expert Witness

Additional Information

Rabbi Bennett Blum, M.D. is an internationally acclaimed physician specializing in forensic and geriatric psychiatry. He is an expert on the detection and impact of psychological manipulation tactics used by offenders to exploit vulnerable adults and the elderly. He has served as an expert witness and litigation consultant on more than one thousand cases involving contested Wills, elder abuse, testamentary capacity, and undue influence claims throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe. In addition, Dr. Blum also worked on the criminal trials of Susan Smith, Andrea Yates, Theresa Ramirez, and Linda Giles; the civil litigation regarding Merrill-Lynch and the Orange County bankruptcy, and the civil lawsuit against O.J. Simpson. Internationally, Dr. Blum testified in the precedent-setting United Nations trial of General Pavle Strugar - the first full competency hearing before an international war crimes tribunal since Nuremberg. In 2022, Dr. Blum worked with UN prosecutors from International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT) during the hearings regarding the competency of Mr. Felicien Kabuga to stand trial for his purported role in the Rawandan genocide. Dr. Blum’s pioneering assessment techniques are taught in law schools and medical training programs throughout much of the Western Hemisphere. In addition, Dr. Blum’s work has been promoted by many international and US-based organizations, including: The United Nations and the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia; US State Department and the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina; the Spanish Society of Legal Psychiatry; the World Psychiatric Association; the British Columbia Law Institute; the American Bar Association; the National College of Probate Judges; the National College of District Attorneys; the National District Attorneys Association; the Association of Judicial Disciplinary Counsel; and the National Guardianship Association. Dr. Blum is a Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Arizona College of Medicine. Dr. Blum's work first received national attention when he was the only mental health expert asked to testify at the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation's 1999 hearing on Fraud: Targeting America's Seniors. In 2005, Dr. Blum participated in an invitation-only policy development conference for the White House Conference on Aging, and in 2006, his work became part of a nationwide training project entitled "Undue Influence: The Criminal Justice Response." In 2009, the US State Department sponsored training by Dr. Blum to the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina on the topics of diminished capacity and undue influence/psychological coercion evaluation in war crime litigation. Dr. Blum served on the Board of Directors for the National Committee for the Prevention of Elder Abuse from 2011-2018. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of University of Arizona, Dr. Blum received his medical education from the University of Arizona and psychiatric training at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). His work has been published by the National College of Probate Judges, State Bar Associations, and in major medical textbooks such as Kaplan and Sadock's Comprehensive Textbook of Psychiatry, which has included his work in their editions for more than 18 years. Internationally, his work is profiled in the French elder-abuse text Douze Geriatres en Colere. Dr. Blum’s IDEAL model has been taught in several law schools, including University of Denver Sturm College of Law; University of Chicago School of Law; and Stetson University College of Law. The IDEAL model is also described in the American Bar Association’s text Assessment of Older Adults with Diminished Capacity: A Handbook for Psychologists, which lists it as one of the methods to be used when evaluating claims of undue influence.