Forensic Behavioral Science Newsletter ©

Tip of the Month:
There are times when in the quest to legally advocate for a client, attorneys may attempt to elicit supportive information from a mental health professional. It is generally “good” practice for the expert to limit their testimony about persons with whom there has been direct and sufficient contact that meets the prevailing professional ethics and standards. The expert should make clear the professional and empirical limits of their responses that may be hypothetical or theoretical. Clearly, unless one has worked with a particular client, any comments regarding that individual or family would be purely hypothetical and should be made obvious to the court. To do otherwise, as if the expert was stating a fact, would be misleading and inappropriate. Frequently, experts are called in to comment on other professionals testing. Using test data in isolation of personal experience with a client is misleading to a court. If you must have “a battle of experts”, then insure your expert is performing professionally by limiting their testimony and properly identifying certain comments as speculative and hypothetical; you and your expert will be more credible.

Feature Article:
Last issue I stated that we would explore some of the criticisms of Parent Alienation Syndrome. Keep in mind critics frequently argue about parent alienation and attempt to discredit PAS. PAS has been accused as a non-diagnostic syndrome, that is, it does not help identify the cause of the behaviors, prognosis of the disorder, treatment of the parties, and is not research based. This argument continues in spite of the fact that Dr. Gardner has over 66 peer review articles, authored by someone other than himself, an additional 18 articles authored by Dr. Gardner himself, 51 references that address PAS in depth, and the American Psychological Association has published guidelines for child custody cases, all citing Dr. Gardner’s work (one of which is completely devoted to PAS.) Dr. Gardner’s web site also provides important references to Frye Test standards. A must reading for you and your experts. I guess on could continue the anti PAS position, but it appears that the evidence is mounting and who knows, we find PAS in the next DSM to finally end the discussion and move on.

I hope this information is helpful, until next time, sincerely, Robert A. Evans, Ph.D.