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  MIG Update – February 2, 2026

Psych Validity Testing Not Determinative

This week’s review examines a MIG hold case, in which the Tribunal challenged the assumption that validity testing is the “silver bullet” in psychological disputes. The Tribunal weighed the Applicant’s diagnosis of severe PTSD against the Respondent’s finding of no impairment. While greater weight was given to the expert who utilized standalone validity testing, the absence of validity testing in the Applicant’s report was not determinative.

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In Allen v. Belair Insurance Company Inc (24-001448), Yahya Abdus Salaam Allen was involved in an accident on October 29, 2021 and sought entitlement to five Treatment Plans for chiropractic services, psychological assessment and services. He submitted that he should be removed from the MIG, as he suffered from chronic pain and psychological impairments. Our analysis focuses on the psychological claim.

Allen relied on the OCF-3 by chiropractor Dr. Patel, which listed pain in her joints, low back pain, myalgia, headaches, nervousness, fatigue and emotional shock and stress. Also on a psychological assessment report, dated October 2023 by psychotherapist Ms. Yong and psychological associate Ms. Singh (Yong and Singh report) who diagnosed him with PTSD, major depressive disorder, somatic symptom disorder, and vehicular phobia.

Belair on the other hand relied on a psychological IE report, dated December 2023 by psychologist Dr. Lotfalizadeh concluded that Allen suffered no psychological impairment as a result of the accident due to scoring on the Structured Inventory of Malingered Symptomatology (SIMS), which flagged possible symptom exaggeration.

Allen argued that Dr. Lotfalizadeh placed overreliance on the SIMS test, which he claimed is not definitive evidence of malingering and should be interpreted alongside clinical interviews. Conversely, Belair noted that the Yong and Singh report failed to include any standalone validity testing or address the possibility of symptom magnification. Nor did the report address what the embedded validity index within the Pain Patient Profile was meant to measure, only noting that Allen provided a valid profile.

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The Tribunal found:

• • While an OCF-3 had previously identified psychological issues like nervousness and emotional shock, it was completed by a chiropractor, who cannot opine on psychological impairments as it falls outside their scope of practice.
    
  • Dr. Lotfalizadeh’s report employed a standalone validity test (SIMS) and provided a detailed analysis of how those results impacted other measures in the assessment and was preferred over The Yong and Singh report which lacked such testing. However the Adjudicator stated ‘I find that this is not necessarily determinative of the issue in dispute”.
  • The underlying evidentiary gap was that there was no corroborating evidence that Allen consistently complained of psychological issues to his treating medical practitioners. Specifically, clinical notes from his family physician dated October 2023 and April 2024 contained no mention of nervousness, fatigue, or emotional shock.
    
  • Because Allen could not prove his psychological impairments on a balance of probabilities, the Tribunal concluded he should not be removed from the MIG.
    

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