About Bennett Blum, MD

Expert Services

Bennett Blum, MD, is an internationally acclaimed physician specializing in both forensic psychiatry and geriatric psychiatry. An expert on the evaluation of undue influence and associated manipulation tactics, Dr. Blum has consulted on hundreds of legal cases throughout the United States and internationally - including the precedent-setting United Nations trial of General Pavle Strugar. This was the first full competency hearing at an International War Crimes Tribunal since Nuremberg.

Dr. Blum has worked with major US Government agencies, law enforcement, and research institutes on the prevention, investigation, and litigation of issues related to undue influence and coercion. In 1999, he was the only mental health expert asked to testify at the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation's hearing on Fraud: Targeting America's Seniors. From 2002-2004, Dr. Blum was a technical advisor to the Research Triangle Institute for its national study on elder financial exploitation. This study was the basis for the Administration on Aging’s “Financial Exploitation of Older Persons Report.” In 2005, Dr. Blum participated in an invitation-only policy development conference for the White House Conference on Aging. In 2009, the U.S. State Department sponsored a lecture by Dr. Blum at the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina on the forensic psychiatry analysis of undue influence claims in war crimes trials.

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 -including sections on elder abuse and undue influence in the seventh, eighth, and ninth editions of Kaplan and Sadock's Comprehensive Textbook of Psychiatry. Dr. Blum's work on undue influence assessment is also available in Assessment of Older Adults with Diminished Capacity: A Handbook for Psychologists - published jointly by the American Bar Association's Commission on Law and Aging and the American Psychological Association.