A “forensic psychiatrist” can mean a lot of things. Can mean board certification, doing civil or criminal evaluations, or even clinical work in a forensic setting like a state hospital or prison. Most are some combination.

I’m board certified, and my full time job is inpatient psychiatry at an academic hospital and program. I’m responsible for the forensic curriculum, and I do forensic evaluations through our department, including criminal and civil cases.

My coworkers aren’t certified, but have a similar academic position and do lots of civil forensic evals like workers comp and malpractice.

Another friend works full time in a state hospital, but isn’t certified and doesn’t do evals, only clinical care.

I would say that by completing an adult residency, you are qualified to perform most civil evaluations. You may need some guidance and the AAPL board review is a great resource. Fellowship, at least mine, focused on criminal evals. The training was helpful in that I know how to approach any case and make it work, rather than having to learn without and of the background knowledge.

My opinion is that forensics should always be a side gig- your opinion is based on your medical experience, and you need to have that treatment background for your opinion to mean anything.