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Dr. Garber participates in
family litigation on behalf of
children.
Attorneys commonly retain Dr. Garber in
order to:
Review
mental health treatment and evaluation records 
Review Guardian ad litem
process and recommendations
Educate the court regarding
child and family development
Evaluate allegations of
aliention
Critique opposing expert
testimony
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Dr.
Garber's qualifications to serve
as an
expert witness.
Dr.
Garber's experience spanning
more than 25 years in child and family development, research,
clinical and forensic child-centered matters makes him an eminently
qualified expert. Dr. Garber's numerous publications in both family law
and mental health professional publications, his mass media
publications, speaking engagements and his books stand in support of
this expertise.
Dr.
Garber's Curriculum Vitae
(CV) is provided in overview
Contact Dr. Garber directly in
order to obtain an updated and thorough
CV, reprints and related information.
Dr. Garber
has worked in the
courts including those in New Hampshire,
Massachusetts and Wisconsin. However, as a matter of policy, please be
advised
that Dr. Garber does not maintain and
will not provide a list of courts
or cases in which he has served in any capacity.
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Testamentary
v. non-testamentary expert?
Dr. Garber works as
a forensic expert in the employ of legal counsel, not in the employ of
the litigant. This distinction is important as it bears on
privilege and with regard to providing testimony.
Privilege: Working as a
consultant for an attorney protects work-product from discovery. No
such protections apply to an expert who works for the litigant him- or
herself. This means that when an attorney hires Dr. Garber as an
expert, anything can be discussed without fear of exposure to the court
process (excluding matters of safety protected under relevant mandated
reporting laws) unless and until Dr. Garber takes the stand.
Testimony: When hired to
provide testimony regarding a releavnt area of the psychological
literature or a review of documents received, Dr. Garber will NOT
interview, observe or be introduced to the litigant. Although litigants
reasonably ask to meet 'their expert,' such exposure can compromise Dr.
Garber's ability to provide objective testimony and can give the court
reason to discount Dr. Garber's testimony. Meeting a litigant can be
construed as gathering new data and arguably corrupts an expert's
otherwise objective testimony.
Non-testamentary expert: By
contrast, if Dr. Garber is hired to provide litigation support services
(e.g., review of records, preparing cross-examination) in a
non-testamentary capacity, there is no risk of discovery. In this role,
Dr. Garber will be glad to meet with and may need to interview the
litigant. Discovery is not relevant because -in this capacity- Dr.
Garber will not testify.
Never the 'twain shall meet? Once
hired as a non-testamentary expert, Dr. Garber may be ineligible to
later shift into a testamentary role. To do so would be to risk
exposing the full breadth of privileged materials reviewed in the first
role under cross-examination. However, in some instances it may be
acceptable to shift from an initial testamentary role into a
non-testamentary role.
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Terms and limits
of
Dr.
Garber's expert work
Dr.
Garber will provide you with a
service agreement detailing the terms and limitations of his work as an
expert in your employ. This document will outline
conditions likely to include:
 A
commitment to serve the child's best interests, acknowledging that this
may not be consistent with the litigant's position, stated wishes or
desired
outcomes.
Why
then would you hire Dr. Garber?
Read about the "hired
gun" criticism
Costs per hour, inclusive of all
efforts including research, expenses, communications and travel,
routinely requested in the form
of an advance retainer commensurate with an anticipated investment of
time.
Clarification of
his role, including the limitations and extent of his availability to
provide specific services including testimony. .
Clarification
of the privacy of records obtained and work product under
applicable standards of confidentiality, privilege, ethics and the law.
Read
more about confidentiality and expert opinion
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Why hire a
child-centered expert?
Because
child-centered decisions should
never be built upon adult needs. Healthy parents and conscientious
courts build child-centered decisions upon a thorough
understanding of children's needs.
Dr. Garber brings more than 25
years of expertise in child and family development, clinical and
forensic process, to bear on the matter before the court. Dr.
Garber is well qualified to:
Assist in trial preparation, examination
and cross-examination of mental health witnesses, and to prepare
arguments in favor of child-centered services (e.g., how, when
and who to involve to evaluate parties relevant to a custody matter)
Read about trial preparation
considerations
Critique
psychological and developmentally-based evidence (e.g.,
psychological service reports, GAL report, PC efforts)
Read about critique of
professional services
Educate the court in relevant areas of
psychopathology, child and family development, and the dynamics
associated with family transition, conflict and divorce including
alienation.
Read
about alienation in family law
However, Dr. Garber will
not work as a "hired gun," asserting his credentials to blindly support
your position in court for a fee
Read about the "hired gun" criticism
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Dr. Garber's service
agreement will specify that while working in your employ, he reserves
the right to take a child-centered position based on the data available
to him and acknowledging that this position may not support your
specific wishes. This is
never a cause
for concern if,
indeed, you share an interest in serving the child's best interests.
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Records, Privilege and Confidentiality
Dr. Garber maintains all records in
accord with
relevant laws and ethical standards. These records will be protected as
attorney work product unless and until Dr. garber is identified
as a testamentary expert. Once identified to opposing counsel and the
courts in the manner, anything he may have seen, heard or read may be
exposed through discovery, deposition, interrogatory and/or
testimony.
Read
more about records and reports here
Exceptions to
this
disclosure rule may occur when concerns for safety, court orders or
administrative review processes require otherwise.
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When serving as
an expert,
Dr. Garber is
not serving as therapist.
Participating
in litigation of any
kind is predictably very stressful, all that much more so when the
litigation concerns children. For this reason, litigating parents
(and their children) are well advised to simultaneously be in
psychotherapy. This is not an admission of weakness or a
suggestion of craziness, but a healthy choice and an excellent model of
self-care for children.
Although trained as a
psychotherapist, Dr. Garber will not provide
psychotherapeutic services while working in the capacity of expert.
Read about the differences
between these roles
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Dr.
Garber can assist
with trial preparation
Dr. Garber's extensive
experience
as a child and family therapist, his peer-reviewed publications in a
variety of areas of child development and family law, his experience as
a Guardian ad litem, Parent Coordinator and family systems evaluator
make him a valuable resource to attorneys preparing for
deposition, interrogatories and/or
trial. This includes:
Review of witness qualifications,
deposition and/or interrogatories in preparation of examination and
cross-examination
Direct
preparation of litigants and witnesses in anticipation of
testimony
Review,
organization and integration of disparate mental health, educational
and court-related materials (e.g., GAL reports) in preparation for
examination and cross examination
Review
and critique of proposed parenting plans and related court orders with
reagrd to developmental standards and family dynamics in anticipation
of motions to reconsider, ex parte hearings and appeal.
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Expert opinion, family litigation
and alienation.
The
most common request for Dr.
Garber's expertise comes from parents who believe that a co-parent has
interfered with their relationship with a child and that the court must
be educated in order to recognize and respond to this dynamic.
Dr.
Garber has written and
published on the subject of alienation
extensively
The only way in
which to determine whether
the quality of a
parent-child relationship
has been negatively
impacted by
another party's words or
actions
is to conduct a
family systems evaluation
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Parsimony
requires that many other
mutually compatible explanations for a child's contact resistance or
refusal be entertained first.
Read
about contact resistance and refusal
Serving in the capacity of expert witness and without benefit of a full
family systems evaluation, Dr. Garber may be able to educate the court
about the dynamic known as alienation and may be able to argue that
evidence reviewed is or is not consistent with alienation, but will not
be able to determine whether, in fact, alienation has occurred.
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Dr. Garber will
review and
critique
mental health and family law
professionals'
work product in the best interests of the child.
Family
litigation routinely introduces reams of professional records. Dr.
Garber is prepared to interpret and critique
these records in preparation for deposition, interrogatories, direct
and cross-examination of witnesses in the service of better
understanding and meeting children's needs.
This includes, as examples:
Review and critique of Guardian ad
litem investigative process
and recommendations in the context of GAL standards, the
enabling court order and relevant
professionals' evaluations
Review and critique of Parent
Coordination records,
process and outcomes in the context of
PC legislation,
ethical and procedural standards
Review and critique of
psychotherapy records, mental health
diagnosis and their potential bearing on family functioning,
parenting and parenting plans.
Review and critique of
psychological testing with regard to
reliability and validity of instruments administered, process,
interpretation of data and associated recommendations
Review and critique of
professionals' credentials, experience,
apparent bias and expertise as these bear on litigation
Review and
critique of professionals' contribution to litigation
in the context of relevant standards of
practice and ethical standards
Please
note that Dr. Garber is not a physician and is
not qualified to review and critique many
matters that bear
on (as examples) physical health and
medication.
Learn
more about custody
evaluation
standards
Learn more about NH GAL
standards and guidelines
Learn
about
AFCC Parent Coordination
standards
Find
guild-specific ethical
standards for mental health professionals
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Please note:
If
you are participating in a
court-ordered or court-related psychological service, it is very
important that you are fully aware of the special conditions that
may
limit your privacy or confidentiality.
When
psychological services are provided through or in
conjunction
with
the
court system, your confidentiality may be quite limited or
non-existant. You may not have access to records or reports that
concern you without
court order. Information about you may be shared with others at Dr.
Garber's
discretion consistent with the court's order and/or relevant
stipulations or
agreements.
It is
very important to ask Dr. Garber, your attorney and/or the court to
clarify the limits of
confidentiality
relevant to your particular circumstance.
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