A Critical Reference Guide for Litigators on a Key Family Court Issue

• Pages: 30-30
• Date: 01 July 2021
• Author: Jonathan W. Lounsberry
• Subject Matter: Civil Law

Published in Litigation News Volume 46, Number 4, Summer 20 21. © 2021 by the American Bar A ssociation. Repro duced with permissi on. All rights reser ved. This informati on or any portion the reof may not be copie d or disseminated in any

form or by any means or sto red in an electronic da tabase or retrieval sy stem without the ex press writt en consent of the Amer ican Bar Associatio n.

BOOK REVIEW

he issues addresse d in child custody litigation are

vastly different f rom the issues in any other litiga-

tion, as the focus i s on life’s most precious resource.

The litigator must delve into t he worlds of both law and

psychology. It is therefore import ant for litigators to

understand how a pare nt’s interactions wit h a child can affect

the child’s psyche, as well as d irect the path of the litigation.

Litigating Parent al Alienation: E valuating and Present ing an

Effective C ase in Court seeks to give t he family law litigator the

tools and resources to de al with one of the most concerning a nd

dishearten ing issues that can appear in f amily court: parental

alienation.

“Behaviors that unjus tiably alienate a child from a pare nt,

whether intentiona l or not, are damaging,” states Mich igan

Supreme Court Ch ief Justice Bridget Mary Mc Cormack in the

book’s foreword. “They harm ch ildren and parents alike. A nd

they make fami ly law judges’ work exceptionally difcu lt to get

right. When prac titioners know more about the substance of

parental alien ation, they put themselves in the bes t position to

advocate for their client s and to put the courts in the best po si-

tion to reach the right re sults.”

Written by Ashish Josh i, senior editor of the ABA Litigation

Se ction’s Litigation journal,L itigating Parental Alienationseeks

to address an issue t hat has been sometimes dif cult to address

in family cour ts. “Between 1990 and the w riting of this chap-

ter, there has been conside rable discussion and debate regarding

parental alien ation and parental alienation sy ndrome in the men-

tal health and le gal professional literature,” Joshi expla ins. Much

of the discussion re garding parental alienat ion has consisted of

dialogue among prac titioners and scholars regardi ng psychologi-

cal disorders, i ncluding the criteria for diagnosi ng parental alien-

ation, the pathways by which pa rental alienation comes about,

the relative culpabilit ies of the favored and targeted parents, t he

prevalence of parental a lienation in custody and parenti ng time

litigation, appropriate and ef fective interventions, the roles of

professional s, and preventative measu res.

The book’s nine chapters a re written in a manner that a llows

the reader to explore the issu e of parental alienation from its

basic concepts to tips for lit igating this matter effec tively:

• An introduction to parental alienation

• The admissibility of expert testimony on parental alienation

• Interventions in cases of parental alienation

• Presenting a parental alienation case in court

• The role of the guardian ad litem (or child representative)

• Misinformation about parental alienation

• The intersection of parental alienation and domestic

violence

A Critical Reference Guide for

Litigators on a Key Family Court Issue

Litigating Parent al Alienation: E valuating and Presenti ng an Effective Case in C ourt is available at http: //bit.ly/LN46 4-joshi.

• A global perspective on parental alienation

• Practical tips for litigating these matters in court

Each chapter systemat ically addresses its topic by givi ng the

reader the ability to u nderstand the issue from a legal and p sycho-

logical perspe ctive. The appendices also give t he reader access to

resources for fu rther reading on the issue, as wel l as lists of cases

and statutes from ju risdictions across the Unite d States.

The manner in w hich Joshi addresses the “light ning rod” of

family court litigation will help litigators address the difcult

issue of parental al ienation. Joshi also takes ti me to help the

reader understand t he evidentiary hurdles asso ciated with pre-

senting psychologic al issues to the family court , along with pro-

viding a resourc e for the evidentiary standa rd for each state (i.e.,

Frye or Dauber t).

A full read demonst rates that this is an essenti al reference for

the family cour t litigator. For anyone who regularly litigates the

issue of child custody o r acts as a guardian ad litem, t his book is

a true desk reference a nd should be included in your library.

By Jonathan W. Lounsberr y, Litigation News Contributing Editor

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