Psychiatric IMEs in New York Retaliation and Discrimination Claims: When the Plaintiff's Mind Is Actually In Controversy

Stephan M. Carlson, MD, MBA, FAPA · Employment and Fitness

In a discrimination or retaliation case, the psychiatric exam is not a referendum on whether the plaintiff was wronged. It measures how much of the claimed emotional injury the evidence supports, and how much was already in the room before the employer acted. The threshold is not diagnosis — it is whether the mind is in controversy A defense psychiatric examination in a New York employment case is not available on request. Under CPLR 3121(a), a party may be compelled to a mental examination only when that party's "mental condition is in controversy," and the plaintiff controls that by how the emotional-distress claim is pleaded. A plaintiff alleging "garden variety" emotional distress — the

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