Parental Alienation - Myth, Reality or Just the Latest Tool To Argue Change of Custody

I have tried several cases of parental alienation. This refers to the situation where the custodial parent makes a deliberate attempt to turn the children against the non custodial parent with the end result being the non custodial parent has no visitations. I have seen many examples of the conduct. Most recently two examples of this syndrome had come to my office. In one circumstance the mother claimed the father had sexually abused the four year old daughter. Each time the child went on a visitation the mom would file a claim for sexual abuse against the father. In the exercise of prudent response child protective services would get involved and all further visitation would stop pending investigation. Doctors examinations naturally varied between yes there is abuse to maybe to possibly to geez I am not sure on the issue of abuse. Incredibly this went on for multiple years and following multiple filings for child sexual abuse by the mom against the dad. The end result the dad saw the child 3 times in fours years and those were supervised visits. Ultimately the court heard the case on dad's petition to change custody. The Court determined the dad had never abused the child and immediately awarded the dad custody. Seems crazy but there is legal president outside of Maryland for this response by the Court.  Another similar situation involved four teenage children each refused to visit with the dad. The dad argued the mom is coaching and purposefully alienating the kids from him.  The kids stated they said they fear their dad. True even though two of the kids admit they miss him and each of these two states they were never abused by the dad. The two child who did claim abuse assert the abuse consisted of intermittent grabbing, hitting and name calling by the dad.  Expert testimony offered the opinion this was the worse case of parental alienation they had ever witnesses in 20 years of practice. Perhaps an over statement. In any event, Maryland law has only marginally addressed the issue in the case of Barton v. Hirshberg 137 Md.App. 1, 767 A.2d 874 Md.App.,2001. Courts outside of Maryland have reviewed the issue in greater detail.

I agree there are legitimate examples of parental alienation, which I am sure are motivated by hate or even by the innocent misunderstanding of each parent's rights to be involved in their children's lives.  However, given the advent of this syndrome, I am real sure every custody case from this point forward will advocate an element of parental alienation syndrome.

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