By Gregg Woodnick and Isabel Ranney 

A term often thrown around when discussing family court matters is “high conflict litigation.” In general, family court can be traumatic and disputes involving the care of children all are emotionally draining.  But the term “high conflict” really should be reserved for cases that are (sadly) explosive. Frequently, these cases are fraught with child abuse and neglect allegations, ranging from emotional abuse to sexual abuse. These are the cases with numerous Department of Child Safety (DCS) and criminal investigations into the conduct of the parents. There may be detectives, DCS investigators, court employed resources like Court Appointed Advisors (CAAs), Best Interest Attorneys (BIAs), or custody evaluators such as Comprehensive Family Evaluators (CFEs) and Therapeutic Interventionists (TIs) involved. There may also be collaterals such as school counselors and pediatricians who are compelled to report abuse. Any combination of these individuals may launch a custody matter into the unpleasant ream of “high conflict” and tends to cause family court judges to resent the parties and attorneys to question their career choices.

In a case like this, a parent might wonder why the judge is not being more reactive. Why are they letting “that abuser” maintain parenting time and make decisions for the child they are abusing.  They may believe that the multiple investigations, involvement of child therapists, statements made to the police and DCS should all result in the other parent not having any parenting rights. When litigation has reached this point, it may be helpful to have an attorney versed in both child abuse allegation defense and forensic court issues intervene and independently assess the data before more litigation decisions are made.

Parents in these matters are often so enmeshed and litigation-minded that they cannot make objective level-headed decisions on their own and they need a fresh perspective.  It is not just the parents, sometimes the attorneys get that way too and feel they are stuck, unable to see the full scope case because they are in the fishbowl. When this happens, it can be beneficial to have a second perspective from someone with a legal background who has tried complicated abuse (sexual, physical and even the rare factitious disorder) cases conduct an independent review of the data. This more objective evaluation can let you know, not from a medical or mental health perspective, but from a value of the evidence perspective how that data set is likely to be received by the court and opine as to the best path forward.

The benefits of a second perspective from a lawyer include:

1. A fresh perspective from someone with no ties to the result;
2. A comprehensive review of all documents (medical, DCS records, Police reports, Court filings, CFE reports, etc) through the lens of how the Court may perceive them;
3. Advice from an experienced attorney who has handled (and perhaps even taught about) abuse and neglect, sexual abuse, and parental alienation cases;
4. Advice from attorneys who have trained with forensic mental health providers, interviewed and tried cases involving allegations of abuse, factitious disorder (formerly Munchausen by Proxy), suspected nonaccidental Trauma (SNAT), coaching, and false disclosures; and
5. An honest, focused assessment based solely on the raw dataset.

Sometimes, all it takes is a candid and direct assessment of how the Court is likely to perceive the parent and the dataset to spur a resolution or find the right team of providers and experts to help best present and distill the information to the court so the judge can understand what is occurring.

Gregg Woodnick is an attorney and legal educator based in Phoenix, Arizona. He has lectured on child abuse and neglect matters, training attorneys, judges, doctors, and mental health professionals. Gregg has qualified to testify as an expert and consulted in high conflict cases across the United States, including Illinois, Georgia, and Florida, and internationally in the United Kingdom. 

Isabel Ranney is a second-year associate at Woodnick Law, entering into her fourth year of working in family law. In cases involving high conflict litigation, Isabel often assists Gregg with organizing and distilling hundreds of pages of records in order to ensure there is a detailed, comprehensive, and cost-efficient review of all pertinent records.