Custody on Trial

Don't let junk science, evaluator bias, or broken family court procedure cost you custody of your children.

High-conflict custody cases are not won on emotion. They are won on evidence, procedure, and science that holds up under scrutiny. Yet every year thousands of parents face court-appointed evaluators who exceed their statutory authority, rely on psychological tests never validated for custody decisions, and recommend life-altering orders with no empirical basis behind them.

Custody on Trial is a working litigation manual for parents, trial attorneys, and advocates.

Inside you will find:

• The forensic black box, opened. How to use the Tippins and Wittmann Four-Level Model to strike unscientific "ultimate-issue" custody recommendations under Daubert and Frye.
• Personality testing on trial. Step-by-step methods for challenging the misuse of the MMPI-2 and MCMI, and for excluding custody-specific instruments like the ASPECT, BPS, and PORT that lack published norms and known error rates.
• Alienation versus estrangement. How to apply the Five-Factor Model and the relevant DSM-5 categories to distinguish genuine parental alienation from a child's justified response to real harm, and how to answer a false allegation.
• The research on shared parenting. What the meta-analytic evidence actually shows about 50/50 custody, including in high-conflict cases, and how to put it in front of a judge without overstating it.
• Federal and statutory shields. How to invoke Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act and federal civil rights protections when a diagnosis is used against a fit parent.
• Courtroom-ready tools. Cross-examination scripts, evaluator audit checklists, gatekeeping behavioral logs, and motion in limine templates.

Whether you are a parent fighting for your right to raise your child or a practitioner looking for an evidentiary edge, this book gives you the procedural footing to hold family court to its own standards.