Saturday, July 25, 2009

Family Courts are Warned Against Use of So-called "Parental Alienation Syndrome"

From Rights For Mothers:

Here is the new Judicial Guide to Child Safety in Custody Cases from the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges Family Violence Department. Again the fake, so-called "Parental Alienation Syndrome" and the use of "parental alienation" is warned against and the Council tells the courts they should not accept this BS.

The only entities that do believe in this fairy tale syndrome is father's rights groups who are fronted by abusive violent men and the Whores of the Court that sustain themselves by use of these false syndromes.

2009: A Judicial Guide to Child Safety in Custody Cases



National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges Family Violence Department


Page 12:

C. [§3.3] A Word of Caution about Parental Alienation34

Under relevant evidentiary standards, the court should not accept testimony regarding parental alienation syndrome, or “PAS.” The theory positing the existence of PAS has been discredited by the scientific community.35 In Kumho Tire v. Carmichael, 526 U.S. 137 (1999), the Supreme Court ruled that even expert testimony based in the “soft sciences” must meet the standard set in the Daubert case.36 Daubert, in which the court re-examined the standard it had earlier articulated in the Frye37 case, requires application of a multi-factor test, including peer review, publication, testability, rate of error, and general acceptance. PAS does not pass this test. Any testimony that a party to a custody case suffers from the syndrome or “parental alienation” should therefore be ruled inadmissible and stricken from the evaluation report under both the standard established in Daubert and the earlier Frye standard.38

The discredited “diagnosis” of PAS (or an allegation of “parental alienation”), quite apart from its scientific invalidity, inappropriately asks the court to assume that the child’s behaviors and attitudes toward the parent who claims to be “alienated” have no grounding in reality. It also diverts attention away from the behaviors of the abusive parent, who may have directly influenced the child’s responses by acting in violent, disrespectful, intimidating, humiliating, or discrediting ways toward the child or the other parent. The task for the court is to distinguish between situations in which the child is critical of one parent because they have been inappropriately manipulated by the other (taking care not to rely solely on subtle indications) , and situations in which the child has his or her own legitimate grounds for criticism or fear of a parent, which will likely be the case when that parent has perpetrated domestic violence. Those grounds do not become less legitimate because the abused parent shares them, and seeks to advocate for the child by voicing his or her concerns.

To read the entire report, "A Judicial Guide to Child Safety in Custody Cases (2009)" by National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges Family Violence Department, please click here. This report should be very useful to both moms and dads who are under attack by claims of PAS against them.


Thursday, July 23, 2009

Tennessee Murder Suspect Tried to Take Custody of Children From Ex-Wife...Called Her "UNFIT"

If it would have been in Indiana, he would have gotten away with it...court fee paid or not! From The Huntsville Times:

Tuesday, July 21, 2009 By Niki DoyleTimes Staff Writer niki.doyle@htimes.com

The man accused of killing six people, including his wife and her 16-year-old son, once tried to take custody of his two children away from his ex-wife by claiming she was an unfit mother.

According to court records from August 2008, 30-year-old Jacob Shaffer claimed his ex-wife, Elizabeth Shaffer, was "neglectful in the welfare and well-being" of the couple's two children, 9-year-old Arianna and 7-year-old Justin.

The case was promptly dismissed in December when Shaffer failed to pay the $382 in court costs, records show.

Shaffer has been charged with murder in Lincoln County, Tenn., in connection with the brutal slayings of his current wife, 38-year-old Tracie Shaffer, and the woman's father, brother and son, along with the son's friend and a Huntsville man.

Tennessee Bureau of Investigation officials said Shaffer spared his own 4-year-old daughter, who was in the home with his wife at the time of the killings. According to court records and family, Shaffer has at least three children - the two from his marriage to Elizabeth Shaffer, and the 4-year-old girl from his marriage to Tracie Shaffer.

Jacob Shaffer claimed less than a year ago that his oldest daughter thrived in his household, earning better grades and showing more involvement in Sunday school than when she lived with her mother.

Shaffer said his ex-wife had been living with her boyfriend and left the children in his sole custody for months, neglecting to pick them up at scheduled times, according to court records.

The claims went unanswered, and the case was closed in December after a Madison County judge denied Shaffer's request for a waiver of fees based on financial hardship.

The 2008 civil case was the second chapter of a custody battle between Shaffer and his ex, who sued him three years earlier for $7,375 in back child support for their two children.

Shaffer teetered on the brink of a 110-day jail sentence for failing to pay 80 child support payments since the couple's divorce in 2003. Shaffer put down a "large good-faith payment" after the civil court claim was filed, causing the judge to withdraw the order that could have sent him to jail.