Panel | Bugmy Bar Book
| Saturday, August 1, 2026 |
| 9:00 AM - 10:00 AM |
Overview
Bugmy Bar Book: a rights-based and culturally responsive approach to navigating medicolegal issues for neuropsychologists (Crystal Triggs, Vanessa Edwige, Liz Vuletich)
Presenter
A/Prof Crystal Triggs
.
Panel - Bugmy Bar Book: a rights-based and culturally responsive approach to navigating medicolegal issues for neuropsychologists
9:00 AM - 10:00 AMAbstract
This interdisciplinary panel brings together a legal practitioner, an Aboriginal psychologist, and a neuropsychologist to examine the application of a rights-based, culturally responsive lens in navigating medicolegal issues for neuropsychology. Grounded in Bugmy v The Queen (2013), the Bugmy Bar Book synthesises evidence on trauma, structural inequality, and social disadvantage to support courts and legal and health professionals in understanding lived experience for those who encounter the legal system. Neurocognitive challenges develop and are expressed within conditions that are shaped by intergenerational trauma, systemic racism, structural disadvantage, and disrupted developmental environments. Within medicolegal contexts, recognising and contextualising disadvantage supports more informed judicial decision-making and advances substantive equality before the law. This has direct relevance for neuropsychologists, whose expert opinions on cognitive functioning, impairment, and risk frequently influence legal outcomes.
The panel will explore how contemporary professional regulatory changes intersect with medicolegal practice, reinforcing expectations for culturally responsive, reflexive, and rights-based approaches to assessment and advocacy. Ethical challenges inherent in working within the legal system will be examined, alongside opportunities to advocate for change. The Bugmy Bar Book will be discussed as a practical resource that supports the integration of contextual evidence into neuropsychological formulation and legal reasoning, strengthening the validity, fairness, and ethical integrity of expert reports. Through legal, cultural, and clinical perspectives, the panel invites reflection on how neuropsychologists can contribute to more equitable, evidence-informed outcomes across justice and healthcare systems.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the session, attendees will:
Articulate the implications of the updated regulatory changes and how these intersect with medicolegal practice.
Reflect on the central importance of culturally responsive, rights-based approaches to neuropsychological assessment and advocacy within legal and clinical contexts.
Recognise ethical challenges and opportunities in medicolegal assessment and challenging dominant discourse in colonial systems, particularly in relation to Indigenous perspectives.
Evaluate the role of the Bugmy Bar Book resources in supporting equitable, evidence-informed outcomes across justice and healthcare systems.
The panel will explore how contemporary professional regulatory changes intersect with medicolegal practice, reinforcing expectations for culturally responsive, reflexive, and rights-based approaches to assessment and advocacy. Ethical challenges inherent in working within the legal system will be examined, alongside opportunities to advocate for change. The Bugmy Bar Book will be discussed as a practical resource that supports the integration of contextual evidence into neuropsychological formulation and legal reasoning, strengthening the validity, fairness, and ethical integrity of expert reports. Through legal, cultural, and clinical perspectives, the panel invites reflection on how neuropsychologists can contribute to more equitable, evidence-informed outcomes across justice and healthcare systems.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the session, attendees will:
Articulate the implications of the updated regulatory changes and how these intersect with medicolegal practice.
Reflect on the central importance of culturally responsive, rights-based approaches to neuropsychological assessment and advocacy within legal and clinical contexts.
Recognise ethical challenges and opportunities in medicolegal assessment and challenging dominant discourse in colonial systems, particularly in relation to Indigenous perspectives.
Evaluate the role of the Bugmy Bar Book resources in supporting equitable, evidence-informed outcomes across justice and healthcare systems.
.....
Crystal Triggs is the Project Director of the Bugmy Bar Book and an Adjunct Professor at Southern Cross University. In 2023 she was recognised as the New South Wales Regional Practitioner of the Year award in recognition of her work on the Bugmy Bar Book and as managing lawyer for the northern region of the Aboriginal Legal Service (NSW/ACT) during the 2022 Lismore Floods. Crystal was also previously a lawyer in the youth team at the North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency (NAAJA) when the Royal Commission into Youth Detention and Child Protection in the Northern Territory was announced and continued to represent her youth clients in the royal commission, one of her clients becoming a significant case study published in the final report. Crystal went on to the manage the NAAJA youth team. Crystal has also worked as a teaching fellow at UNSW.
Vanessa Edwige
Chair
APIA
Panel - Bugmy Bar Book: a rights-based and culturally responsive approach to navigating medicolegal issues for neuropsychologists
9:00 AM - 10:00 AM.....
Vanessa Edwige is a Ngarabal woman from Emmaville, NSW. Vanessa is a registered psychologist and the Chair of the Australian Indigenous Psychologists Association. Vanessa has worked in Redfern, NSW as a psychologist providing culturally responsive psychological support for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, young people, families and community. Vanessa currently works privately conducting assessments and preparing psychological reports for people involved in the judicial system and medicolegal reports for civil matters. Vanessa has been writing these reports for over 20 years. Vanessa is a member of the independent advisory panel for the NSW Public Defenders Bugmy Bar Book project and is a co-author on the Significance of Culture to Wellbeing, Healing and Rehabilitation which was commissioned for the Bugmy Bar Book Project. Vanessa also sits on the First Nations Advisory Group for the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions NSW.
Dr Liz Vuletich
Consultant Clinical Neuropsychologist | Director
Mind Link Psychology
Bugmy Bar Book: a rights-based and culturally responsive approach to navigating medicolegal issues for neuropsychologists
9:00 AM - 10:00 AM.....
Dr Liz Vuletich is a clinical neuropsychologist raised on Mparntwe (Alice Springs), where early experiences in central and western desert regions fostered deep respect for Aboriginal knowledges and the importance of deep listening. Endorsed in Clinical Neuropsychology, she holds a Masters and PhD from the University of Western Australia and has worked across public and private sectors since 2006, including senior leadership, university lecturing, board approved supervision and private practice. Since 2009, her work has focused on forensic and medicolegal practice, particularly with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, emphasising culturally responsive, equity-focused, and community-engaged care, especially within the Expert witness role.
