When women raise claims of abuse in the family courts, the judge will often appoint an expert to carry out an assessment and write a report to help guide their decision on contact or custody. That expert holds a tremendous amount of power; they can be a lawyer, a social worker or a mental health professional, and they become the eyes and ears of the court.
Read moreFamily Court Reporters: Gender Bias, Victim Blaming & the Whitewashing of Domestic Violence
Adult and child victims of domestic violence in the family court system get treated abhorrently; abuse is disbelieved, diminished and denied and evidence is covered up. Both child and adult victim are court-ordered into communication and contact with coercively controlling perpetrators. It delights the perpetrator and traumatises their victims, for years on end.
Read moreSummary of Academic Research on Parental Alienation (In Cases Involving Domestic Abuse)
What happens when a parent raises claims of ‘abuse’ in a civil family court action and it gets counterclaimed with ‘parental alienation’ or similar?
Here’s what the experts say.
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