Litigating Parental Alienation: Evaluating and Presenting an Effective Case in Court

Litigating Parental Alienation provides an in-depth examination of evaluating a case of parental alienation and practical guidance for handling a case in court. An overwhelming number of American family courts have acknowledged that parental alienation exists, although there is significant variance in how the courts have defined it and how they deal with it. As these cases involve not just family law practitioners, this book offers science, case law, and practice pointers for Guardians ad Litem, family court judges, referees, minors' counsel, and custody evaluators.

The first chapter provides both a brief history and overview of the controversies surrounding the phenomenon of parental alienation, providing a starting point for a fundamental understanding of the concept. Author Ashish Joshi distills his experience of litigating parental alienation cases before family courts all over America and internationally. He discusses not just the concepts but also offers hands on practice pointers with supporting case law in presenting cases of parental alienation in family courts. The book also discusses the criteria for the admissibility of expert testimony on parental alienation, how to present the expert evidence, as well as a state map of admissibility standards. Finally, the author debunks the commonly-held myths and fallacies that compromise judicial outcomes in parental alienation cases.

Chapters address these critical issues in litigating parental alienation cases:

Court interventions Expert testimony and presenting a case The role of guardian ad litem and child representative Misinformation about parental alienation and how to respond to it Domestic violence and parental alienation Defending against false allegations of parental alienation Tips and guidance for practitioners Appendices, including cases documenting alienating strategies and signs of alienation in children, state admissibility standards, and statutes and cases regarding minors' counsel