Law Commons^™

The Psychotherapist-Patient Privilege In The Family Court: An Exemplar Of Disharmony Between Social Policy Goals, Professional Ethics, And The Current State Of The Law, Deborah Paruch

Northern Illinois University Law Review

The mental health community recognizes the importance of confidentiality in the psycho-therapeutic relationship and the resultant impact on the effectiveness of treatment. This is embodied in professional ethical standards that prescribe confidentiality of information obtained in treatment. A psychotherapist-patient testimonial privilege is recognized by common law in federal courts, and by statute in all fifty states. However, state laws provide uncertain protection of this privilege in child custody disputes and virtually none in child abuse and neglect cases. In such cases, mental health professionals are commonly required to provide courts with confidential information obtained in psychotherapy sessions- often against their …

Parent Education Programs: Review Of The Literature And Annotated Bibliography, Barbara A. Babb, Gloria Danziger, Judith D. Moran, Itta Englander

All Faculty Scholarship

Court-connected parent education programs are an integral family service component in most of the nation’s family courts. These programs are implemented to enable the courts to respond efficiently and effectively to the proliferation of cases involving separation, divorce, and related issues such as child custody and access (Sigal, Sandler, Wolchik, and Braver, 2008; Pollet and Lombreglia, 2008; McIntosh and Deacon-Wood, 2003). Since 2007, parent education classes are mandatory in forty-six states (Pollet and Lombreglia, 2008). In Maryland, every court with jurisdiction over divorce and child custody matters utilizes some form of parent education.

The findings discussed in this literature review …

Child Custody Evaluations: Review Of The Literature And Annotated Bibliography, Barbara A. Babb, Gloria Danziger, Judith D. Moran, J. Mason Weeda, William A. Mack

All Faculty Scholarship

This review of custody evaluation literature encompasses a number of perspectives gleaned from the following: practitioners who perform the evaluations; the professional organizations that recognize the necessity to establish performance standards for practitioners; and the judges who depend on the findings and recommendations in the evaluations to assist with difficult custody decisions.

General agreement exists among practitioners about the components of a comprehensive evaluation (interviews of adults responsible for child care, interviews of children and their preferences, life histories, observations, psychological testing, document review, and collateral source data), though little consensus exists about the details of performance concerning a given …

Supervised Visitation And Monitored Exchange: Review Of The Literature And Annotated Bibliography, Barbara A. Babb, Gloria Danziger, Judith D. Moran, William A. Mack

All Faculty Scholarship

Though courts increasingly rely on supervised visitation services in custody disputes and child welfare cases (Salem, Kulak, & Deutsch, 2007), a search of the literature produces few studies reporting empirically validated aspects of supervised visitation programs. The current literature about supervised visitation extensively documents the rationale for providing the service and contains numerous descriptions of provider programs (Birnbaum & Alaggia, 2006). The next generation of research must focus on long-term outcomes that demonstrate effectiveness of supervised visitation programs (Birnbaum & Alaggia, 2006).

This project involves a review of the literature concerning supervised visitation and child access services. The intent of …

The Basis For Legal Parentage And The Clash Between Custody And Child Support, Leslie J. Harris

Leslie J. Harris

In the United States today, we have two legal bases for parentage, biology and function. Biological parenthood is usually controlling when the issue is liability for child support, and functioning as a parent is considered, if at all, only when the primary issue is custody or access to a child. These two strands of parentage law derive from what Jacobus tenBroek called the dual system of family law. While the divided law that ten Broek describes is centuries old, until fairly recently, the two strands ran in parallel and did not have much impact on each other. However, in the …

How Embedded Knowledge Structures Affect Judicial Decision Making: An Analysis Of Metaphor, Narrative, And Imagination In Child Custody Disputes, Linda L. Berger

Linda L. Berger

We live in a time of radically changing conceptions of family and of the relationships possible between children and parents. Though undergoing “a sea-change,” family law remains tethered to culturally embedded stories and symbols. While so bound, family law will fail to serve individual families and a society whose family structures diverge sharply by education, race, class, and income. This article advances a critical rhetorical analysis of the interaction of metaphor and narrative within the specific context of child custody disputes. Its goal is to begin to examine how these embedded knowledge structures affect judicial decision making generally; more specifically, …

Rethinking Visitation: From A Parental To A Relational Right, Ayelet Blecher-Prigat

Duke Journal of Gender Law & Policy

[...] visitation rights are considered to arise from the very fact of parenthood, so that parents are entitled to this right simply by being legally recognized as parents. [...] visitation rights are subject to the general rule of parental exclusivity: only a child's legal parents have rights considered parental, and non-parents cannot acquire them.

The Rights Of Divorced Lesbians: Interstate Recognition Of Child Custody Judgments In The Context Of Same-Sex Divorce, Kathryn J. Harvey

Fordham Law Review

This Note explores the issue of interstate recognition of child custody, which arises in the context of same-sex divorce. The Parental Kidnapping Prevention Act (PKPA) requires states to grant full faith and credit to all child custody orders; on the other hand, the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) allows states to deny full faith and credit to judgments “arising out of” same-sex marriage. This Note argues that DOMA partially repeals the PKPA, such that states need not grant full faith and credit to divorce and child custody decrees in the context of same-sex marriage. Further, this Note argues that because …

Money, Caregiving, And Kinship: Should Paid Caregivers Be Allowed To Obtain De Facto Parental Status, Pamela Loufer-Ukeles

Missouri Law Review

The law of custody and visitation is expanding to include the possibility of non-biological and non-adoptive parents' legal access to children. The concept of the psychological parent or functional caretaker is becoming increasingly prevalent and influential in state law. Moreover, the ALI Principles of Family Dissolution include two categories of psychological parents - parents by estoppel and de facto parents - in its proposed guidelines for who can petition for custody and visitation rights to children. Yet, both state law and the ALl Principles exclude caretakers who receive compensation - including foster parents, paid child care providers and surrogate mothers …

How Embedded Knowledge Structures Affect Judicial Decision Making: An Analysis Of Metaphor, Narrative, And Imagination In Child Custody Disputes, Linda L. Berger

Scholarly Works

We live in a time of radically changing conceptions of family and of the relationships possible between children and parents. Though undergoing "a sea-change," family law remains tethered to culturally embedded stories and symbols. While so bound, family law will fail to serve individual families and a society whose family structures diverge sharply by education, race, class, and income.

This article advances a critical rhetorical analysis of the interaction of metaphor and narrative within the specific context of child custody disputes. Its goal is to begin to examine how these embedded knowledge structures affect judicial decision making generally; more specifically, …

A Historical Perspective On Parental Alienation Syndrome And Parental Alienation, Joan S. Meier

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

Claims of parental alienation syndrome (PAS) and parental alienation have come to dominate custody litigation, especially where abuse is alleged. While much psychological and legal literature has critiqued PAS, and leading researchers as well as most professional institutions have renounced the syndrome concept, alienation as a parental behavior or child’s condition continues to be extensively investigated and credited in research and forensic contexts. This article reviews the history of PAS, both as posited by its inventor, Richard Gardner, and as used and applied in courts, suggesting that it not only lacks empirical basis or objective merit, but that it derives …

Who Is A Parent?, Michelle M. Botek, Dorothy R. Fait, Jillian L. Dilaura

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.