If what we learn from witnesses didn’t generally tend to be more informative and reliable than not, then we wouldn’t listen to witnesses at all. No sensible person believes that which he or she knows not to be true, and as long as we don’t know a witness is lying or have reason to believe the witness is lying, we normally benefit from believing what a competent witness says as true.
So, the qualifiers for a good witness or someone who is competent to testify and someone who does not give us any apparent reason to believe the witness is a liar or has any other motive but to tell the truth as the witness perceives it.
Good witnesses in child custody proceedings are witnesses who have personal knowledge of facts that are relevant to the child custody award. Bad witnesses are just the opposite. If the witness convinces us that he or she has such personal knowledge, the court will almost certainly consider that witness’s testimony in formulating its child custody award decision.
Generally speaking, it’s difficult for lying witnesses to get away with lying to the court. Inexperienced liars often (but not always) give themselves away. How? Some ways include: telling unbelievable and inconsistent stories, giving testimony that is clearly biased in favor of one party or clearly biased against the other party, giving testimony that clearly is rehearsed or comes across as rehearsed and not from personal knowledge and easy, confident recall.
Of course, if it weren’t possible to fool people into believing lies, very few lies would be told. Many judges and court personnel (not all, but more than you might suspect) mistakenly believe that they have an above average ability to detect lies. This thus sometimes results in judges accepting as true testimony that is false, and deeming to be false testimony that is true.
This is why lawyers tend to favor objectively verifiable fact over witness testimony, or at least over witness testimony alone, if and when it’s ever possible to provide such independently verifiable objective fact as evidence in a case.
But in child custody cases, given the predominantly private nature of family life, it is hard to prove objectively that a parent has been physically, sexually, or emotionally abusive, physically or emotionally neglectful, an alcohol abuser, mentally or emotionally crippled, a parent who truly cares about his or her children and has formed a strong loving bond with his slash her children, etc.
And so, the next best thing that we have is witness testimony. Not all witness testimony is created or treated equally. If a parent calls his own mother or father or best friend as a witness for that parent, the court is likely to believe or at least suspect—and in my opinion, rightfully so–that such a witness is biased. That such a witness will be likely to downplay (or outright deny) the parents weaknesses and sins and exaggerate (or outright fabricate) the parent’s virtues and accomplishments.
Witnesses who are perceived as most credible are those who don’t appear to have any personal interest in the outcome of the case. People who have nothing to gain or nothing to lose by giving their are honest account and opinions.
For better or for worse, witnesses do inform the judge’s child custody award decision. It’s always frustrating, even sometimes heartbreaking, when a judge believes lying witnesses and disbelieves honest witnesses (and then decides issues based upon false data), but no judge is infallible. The more you can rely upon objective, independently verifiable fact over witness testimony, the better.
rprise that it usually takes much less time and effort to prepare for a proffer hearing than preparing for a full evidentiary hearing. In a proffer hearing the client won’t do much, if anything, during the actual hearing, with the exception of perhaps providing the occasional clarifying answer if the court asks them. No witnesses are called to testify in hearing conducted by proffer; instead, their testimony is provided by affidavit or verified declaration.
If you are unsure if your upcoming hearing will be a proffer or evidentiary hearing, ask your attorney. It could be catastrophic for your case if you show up at court believing the hearing is a proffer hearing when it’s a full-blown evidentiary hearing.
There are “expert” witnesses for virtually any and every issue in legal actions.
Can judges be bamboozled by pseudo-scientific expert witnesses? Without question.
Do some judges who know that the so-called expert witness’s testimony is pseudo-scientific bunk (or at least know that the opinion has dubious scientific grounding) yet justify the ruling the judge wants to make by citing to those pseudo-scientific opinions? Without question.
So your question really should be, “Are there competent expert witnesses who can objectively prove my spouse/the other parent is alienating our child(ren) from me?” The answer to that question is, in my opinion, “no.”
Other questions you should ask (and their answers, in my opinion):
“Are there competent expert witnesses who can make a persuasive case for the argument that my spouse/the other parent is alienating our child(ren) from me?” The answer to that question is “yes.”
“Are there incompetent expert witnesses who can make a persuasive case for the argument that my spouse/the other parent is alienating our child(ren) from me?” The answer to that question is “yes.”
“Are judges generally receptive to the concept (much less the actual occurrence) of parental alienation, and are they generally willing to hold a parental alienator accountable?” The answer to that question is “Some judges will acknowledge that parental alienation exists, but even then the amount and quality of evidence needed to persuade a judge that parental alienation occurred or is occurring is very high, in many cases unobtainably high.”
“Will proving the occurrence of parental alienation help me obtain court orders to protect my children from further alienation and psychological/emotional abuse?” The answer to that question is “maybe.” Some judges take a bizarre approach to proof of parental alienation, i.e., it is clear that [parent] has alienated the child(ren) from [other parent], but if I were to take the children away from the alienator or impose sanctions/restriction/monitoring/supervision on the alienator, then the alienated kids (who side with the alienator because they have been exploited and manipulated and abused) would suffer (i.e., suffer in the process of treating and reversing the alienation brainwashing and being restored to reality), so I am going to leave things be “for the sake of the children.”
Utah Family Law, LC | divorceutah.com | 801-466-9277
To start the divorce process, you must begin by filing what is called a complaint or a petition for divorce with the court. This means you are suing your spouse for a divorce. Don’t let the term “suing” frighten you or your spouse. “To sue” means to institute legal proceedings against your spouse. That’s all.
Then your complaint or petition for divorce is served on (or officially delivered to) your spouse, usually by a law enforcement officer or a private process server. You can also waive personal service by a law enforcement officer or process server and just accept service by signing a simply accepting the documents without the need for personal service.
If you and your spouse agree to the terms of your divorce, also known as an “uncontested divorce,” the issue of “service of process” doesn’t come up because you submit voluntarily to the jurisdiction of the court by signing and filing with the court your divorce settlement agreement and other documents that indicate you recognize you are subject to the to the jurisdiction of the court.
If you’re the one seeking a divorce and the one who filed for divorce, your spouse has 21 days to respond to the complaint for divorce or 30 days to respond if your spouse is served outside of the state of Utah.
The name for the response to a complaint for divorce is an “answer”. If you wish to countersue your spouse for divorce after you get served with a petition or complaint for divorce, you can file an “answer and counterclaim”.
How the case proceeds from this point could take various routes:
At any point during the pendency of the case, as long as the trial has not concluded and the court issued its decree and orders, you and your spouse can reach a settlement agreement.
After the complaint and answer or answer and counterclaim are filed, the parties have to exchange some initial financial information and information about the evidence each party has and what witnesses the parties might call to testify at trial.
Then the parties have 180 days to conduct discovery. The purpose of discovery is to obtain facts and information that will reveal the truth in a matter and help both parties and the court determine what’s truly in dispute and what is not. After discovery closes, then the case is almost ready to take to trial, but not quite.
Before a divorce case can go to trial in Utah the parties must first to go mediation and try to settle the case (if the parties don’t want to go to mediation they can ask the court to waive the mediation requirement “for good cause,” but it’s not easy to get the court to find good cause to waive mediation. Most couples go to mediation, even if they think it won’t work, if for no other reason than to check the “we went to mediation” box, so that they can get to trial.
After discovery closes and mediation is completed, either party can certify the case as read for trial.
Then the court schedules one or more pretrial conferences to prepare for trial, set a trial date, the number of day the trial will take, and other matters.
After trial, the court can take up to 60 days to issue its decision on the case, after which one of the parties’ respective attorneys is ordered to prepare the Decree of Divorce for the court’s signature.
My parents filed an order of protection against me. Is there any way I can fight this at age 17 knowing that I’ve done no wrong?
Your experience may be different, but welcome to what may be an experience that causes you to lose faith in the legal system. You are significantly at your parents’ and the system’s mercy.
The likely first strike against you: given your age, you can be treated much like an adult when it comes to penalties yet denied the freedom to present your case as you wish because of your status as a minor child.
The second strike against you: courts generally do not like hearing from children in almost any law suit and go out of there way to curtail their participation. Now in fairness, in may instances this is intended to protect children and in many instances it does have that effect. In other instances, however, it serves to do nothing but muzzle a child, denying him/her the full capacity to defend himself/herself or express his/her concerns, fears, and desires. The testimony and/or arguments of children, merely on the basis of their being children, are often dismissed as not competent or credible witnesses.
The third strike is that you’re a wild, scary 17-year-old child, boiling with hormones and irresponsibility, which makes it very easy 1) not to be taken seriously; and 2) to be on the receiving end of prejudice, especially when your parents accuse you of being a danger to them.
Bottom line: to say, “Trying to go it alone as a child in court is difficult” is a ridiculously glaring understatement. The unquestionably best thing you can do for yourself is to get a skilled lawyer of your choice, if you can, to defend you within the legal system and to protect you from the vagaries of the legal system. Nothing else will 1) do you and your case more good and 2) better improve your odds of being treated fairly.