Reunification in Cases Involving Parental Alienation (2024 Edition)

Ashish Joshi
Ashish Joshi | Joshi Attorneys + Counselors

Ashish Joshi is the owner and managing partner of Joshi: Attorneys + Counselors. He serves as the lead counsel in high-stakes, complex family law and divorce cases.

On-Demand: February 6, 2024

$195.00 2 hour CLE

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Program Summary

Parental alienation is a highly counterintuitive area. Family law professionals—judges, lawyers, children’s representatives, guardian’s ad litem, custody evaluators—should carefully evaluate the dynamic before rushing in with “solutions.” Seemingly good measures that may have worked in other family law cases do not work in an alienation situation. For instance, as one domestic relations judge realized: Giving a “speech” from the bench to “get through” to an alienating parent does not result in an epiphany or help the situation. Nor will sending off the kids to “therapy.” In fact, it would be difficult to find a more common yet egregious blunder that many professionals routinely commit than advocating for what amounts to traditional “reunification” therapy for parental alienation.

Not only are such therapies known to be ineffective, they are known to be potentially harmful – they “validate” an alienated child’s distorted view of the world, encourage the child to express grievances, and give the child some “control” or choice while advising the rejected parent to “listen, empathize, validate, and apologize (or even to ‘find something to apologize for’).” Traditional therapy is contraindicated and typically makes things worse. Even when provided under court order, such therapies are of little benefit.

In addition, some jurisdictions — e.g., Colorado and California — have recently passed legislation that limits the court’s options when it comes to ordering reunification counseling. What are the options when one is faced with legislative or other restraints on reunification options?

In this presentation, the attendees will learn about the process of Reunification in a parental alienation case together with the relevant scientific literature and court decisions.

Key topics to be discussed:

  • Fundamentals of reunification in a parental alienation dynamic
  • Relevant science
  • Relevant legal cases

Closed-captioning available

Speakers

Ashish Joshi_Joshi Attorneys_Counselors_myLawCLEAshish Joshi | Joshi Attorneys + Counselors

Ashish Joshi is the owner and managing partner of Joshi: Attorneys + Counselors. He serves as the lead counsel in high-stakes, complex family law and divorce cases. He has counseled and/or represented clients in state and federal courts across the United States and internationally, including in India, United Kingdom, Canada, Luxembourg, Hong Kong, British Virgin Islands, and China.

Mr. Joshi has been admitted to the Bar of the Supreme Court of the United States, state bars of New York, Michigan, the District of Columbia, and Gujarat, India. Mr. Joshi serves as a senior editor of Litigation, the flagship journal of the ABA’s Section of Litigation.

Agenda

I. Fundamentals of reunification in a parental alienation dynamic | 2:00 pm – 2:30 pm

II. Relevant science | 2:30 pm – 3:00 pm

Break | 3:00 pm – 3:10 pm

IV. Relevant legal cases | 3:10 pm – 4:10 pm