"Parental Alienation is defined as the deliberate attempt by one parent to distance his/her children from the other parent. An example would be the mother who shares too much information about the father's affair with the children in a covert attempt to cause the children to harbor ill will toward the father. A mother or father [...]
25 Ways to Intentionally Create Conflict in A Coparenting Relationship 2 Replies By Casey Wilson There is a presumption by many family law professionals that if there is moderate to high conflict it is impossible parents share parental duties including time sharing as well as decision making. This seems reasonable, but these professionals really need to [...]
When you are arrested for DUI in California you have ten days to request a hearing with the DMV. If you do not, your license is automatically suspended. If you do, you can ask it to be delayed usually until after the criminal charges are resolved. If you are convicted of DUI the court notifies [...]
When a parent perpetrates a sustained attack upon the relationship between a child and another parent, it is not unusual that the children eventually go along with it in order to avoid becoming a target themselves. It is no secret that children are impressionable, and no secret either that parents loom large in the life [...]
California law holds that parents can obtain an order from the court allowing them to move children away from their current residence, even if that creates a situation where the visitation or custody of the other parent is reduced. The standard, as always, is the vague and ambiguous "best interests of the child" which as [...]
The sad reality that children can be used as pawns in an effort by one parent to hurt another parent never dawned upon me until I witnessed it first hand. Throughout my entire life, I had never seen, or heard of such a thing and it never occurred to me that anyone would do such [...]
The Problem with Eyewitness Testimony a talk by Barbara Tversky, Professor of Psychology and George Fisher, Professor of Law Laura Engelhardt Stanford Law School, April 5, 1999. In a presentation sponsored by the Stanford Journal of Legal Studies, George Fisher placed Barbara Tversky’s research on memory fallibility into the context of police investigations and jury [...]
While people are certainly entitled to their own opinions, they are not entitled to their own facts. Unfortunately, because the our legal system encourages complexity and bases decisions on arcane, often illogical, byzantine rules which encourage gamesmanship rather than fostering an environment that discourages falsehoods, you, the truth-teller are in no advantageous position for being [...]
The television show "Lie to Me" starring Tim Roth tells a story about a "human lie detector" who, by reading facial cues and reactions, can tell whether any individual is telling the truth or not. There are no shortage of people out there, Judges among them, who are convinced they have some special ability to [...]
When I became a family law attorney/mediator after a dozen years as a therapist, one of the biggest surprises was the extent of lying in Family Court: lies about income, assets and even complete fabrications of child abuse and domestic violence. Why would people lie so much, I wondered? How did they get away with [...]
