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Psychologists bring a
wealth
of experience, expertise
and research-based knowledge
to the wide variety of
child-centered legal proceedings.
Litigants,
attorneys and the courts commonly contact Dr. Garber
requesting assistance with child-centered legal matters. This page
seeks to define the various child-centered, court-related services
that
Dr. Garber provides and provide a brief
overview of the limitations relevant to each.
With
little exception, pragmatics and ethics both
dictate
that Dr. Garber can only serve in one role
in your family's
situation.
As a practical matter, parties seeking court-related psychological
services
(e.g., GAL, expert witness and evaluator) must therefore make
well-informed decisions about who might best fulfill each distinct role.
  
  
  
The distinctions discussed here are
also provided graphically 
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Which hat to wear?
The multiple roles dilemma:
Ethics and
practical
considerations mandate that psychologists wear one hat at a time. This
means that Dr.
Garber may be available to provide one of the services described below,
but cannot provide more than one service at any one time. This rule
also
limits Dr. Garber's availability to provide two or more distinct
services
in sequence over time.
In
essence, Dr. Garber may be available to serve as your child's therapist, for
example, but cannot then
provide a family
systems evaluation or
serve in any other role.
Dr.
Garber would be pleased to help you identify other qualified
professionals to
provide additional services as needed.
View the various roles, their goals and
terms compared graphically
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Clinical or forensic services?
Family
conflict,
parental separation and divorce are routinely associated with two
simultaneous processes: Emotional upheaval (and related difficulties of
behavior, health and relationships) and legal process.
 CLINICAL
services seek to address the emotional, behavioral, health and
relationship difficulties of an individual, couple, group or family.
Clinical services are typically available in the form of psychotherapy.
Learn more about psychotherapy
here
FORENSIC
services are those psychological evaluations and interventions intended
to serve
the court. These services typically seek to help the court to rule in a
legal matter. Examples include evaluations relevant to custody
determinations
and court-ordered anger management therapy.
Learn more about forensic
services
here
Learn more about Child Cenentered
Family Evaluation (CCFE) here
Clinical and
forensic
psychological services differ at least as to whose needs are addressed.
Clinical
services seek to address the needs of the client(s) or patient(s).
Forensic
services seek to address the needs of the legal system.
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Can
Dr.
Garber meet with me before
I commit to participate in an ongoing
service?
Absolutely. The request to
interview a professional before engaging in a service makes good sense.
HOWEVER, please be aware that if you are involved in high conflict
litigation, a preliminary meeting may lead some to allege that Dr.
Garber has
become your ally and that he is therefore no longer neutral to the
conflict.
For
example: Mom calls to request that Dr. Garber provide co-parenting support
for herself, her ex-husband and
his new wife. In the interest of confirming that Dr. Garber's services
might "fit" with the co-parents' needs, she requests a preliminary
individual
meeting. Dr. Garber warns that to meet in this way will likely prompt
her
ex-husband to believe that he is somehow on her "side." As
alternatives,
a preliminary meeting with each parent can be arranged. At the least,
Mom
is advised to inform her ex-husband of her wish for a preliminary
meeting.
Click
here to learn more about co-parenting interventions
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What
forensic services is Dr. Garber available to provide in the context of
co-parental conflict, separation and/or divorce?
Dr.
Garber brings specialized training, experience and/or certification to
families in conflict so as to provide the following court-related
services when the necessary conditions are in place:
Co-parenting
intervention: Dr.
Garber is available to work with highly conflicted co-parents toward
the goal of improving
child-centered communication and consistency. When co-parents are
unable
to sit together to participate in this process (e.g., when domestic
violence
is a concern), Dr. Garber may be able to meet with parties in a
separate
but parallel facilitated co-parenting process known as Directed Co-parenting
Intervention
or
DCI.
Learn more about DCI here
Child-centered
Family Evaluation (CCFE; also known as "custody
evaluation"): Dr. Garber brings unique
experience
and skills to the complex process of family. Dr. Garber's background
and
expertise in developmental psychology, family systems and the
attachment
paradigm qualify him as assist the court in addressing the needs of
children
impacted by co-parental conflict, separation and divorce.
Learn more
about
CCFE here
Guardian ad
litem: Dr. Garber is a New
Hampshire certified Guardian ad litem (GAL). A GAL is a court-appointed
child-centered professional assigned to investigate specific matters so
as to assist a judge or marital master in deciding a specific matter.
Dr. Garber accepts GAL appointments under very specific conditions
toward the goal of assisting the court in better meeting children's
needs.
Read about Dr. Garber's work as GAL
Learn more about GALs in
the state of New Hampshire
Parenting
Coordinator: A Parenting
Coordinator (PC) is a child-centered professional appointed by the
court in order to help conflicted co-parents settle child-centered
matters post-divorce. The PC is a mediator/arbiter assigned the task of
investigating, mediating and, as necessary arbitrating specific
disputes over a limited but renewable time period.
Learn about Dr. Garber's
practice as Parenting Coordinator
Learn more about
this
new and promising opportunity to help
children
Consultant
and/or
expert witness: Dr. Garber
strongly prefers to engage conflicted families as a neutral,
child-centered helper. When this is not
possible, Dr. Garber may be available to serve as consultant or expert
witness to one party. This "partisan" role is only acceptable
when
it is understood that Dr. Garber will only represent what he believes
to
be in the child[ren]'s best interests. In this capacity, Dr. Garber may
be available to review and critique psychotherapy and psychological
assessment records,
advise/educate the Court, Guardians ad litem and/or attorneys in
matters
pertaining to child and family development, co-parental conflict,
separation
and divorce, most particularly on the subjects of parental alignment, alienation and
attachment.
Learna bout Dr. Garber's work as an
expert in the courts
Learn more about
these subjects
Parenting Capacity Evaluation:
In some legal contexts, a caregiver may be required to
demonstrate that s/he has the basic skills necessary to care for
children safely and sensitively. Parenting Capacity Evaluation seeks to
advise the court about an individual's potential as a parent. It cannot
address the quality of a specific parent-child relationship or custody
matters.
Learn more about Parenting Capacity
Evaluation
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How are Parent Coordination and
Facilitated Co-parenting Intervention
different?
Parent Coordination is an
alternative
dispute resolution role that must be endorsed by the court. The
Parent Coordinator (PC) works with conflicted caregivers to settle
child-centered differences within the scope of an existing parenting
plan by educating, mediating and, if necessary, arbitrating these
matters. The PC's outcome is held as legally binding unless and until
teh court rules otherwise.
Facilitated Co-parenting Intervention ("co-parenting
therapy") may be
ordered by the court and may have similar goals (e.g., improved
consistency between homes and communication so as to keep the kids out
of the middle of the caregiver conflict), but the co-parenting
facilitator has no authority to arbitrate and the decisions made
through this process do not carry the weight of the court.
Confidentiality may be quite different depending on the service
provided, as well. This distinction will depend on whether the service
is court ordered, the terms Dr. Garber sets forth and parties agree to
and the matters at issue.
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The "hired gun" and "dueling
experts" phenomena in family courts.
When a
mental
health professional agrees to serve as an expert witness in a family
law matter, opposing counsel may suggest that he or she is a
"hired gun," that is, an expert who has been paid to say what the
employing attorney wants him or her to say.
Serving in the capacity of a "hired gun" is ethically
repugnant and
commonly counter to the best interests of the child. Among other
concerns, when one side in a family law matter hires an expert of this
sort, the other side may feel compelled toi do the same, adding an
unnecessary and very expensive and time consuming layer to the
litigation.
Dr.
Garber stipulates in the preliminary terms relevant to each of his
roles in family law that he will only speak to the best interests of
the child or children. Thus,
even in those extreme instances when no other role is possible and Dr.
Garber agrees to serve as expert witness, his opinion may not be
congruent with the opinion or wishes of the party that hires him.
However, as long as everyone involved is genuinely motivated to serve
the child's needs, this should not prove an impediment.
Read a sample
expert service agreement
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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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