Lawyers Ethics in Parental Alienation

A lot of literature exists about parental implications and their effects on victims and societies. Yet while lawyers are very important stakeholders in parental alienation litigation, very little is written on how lawyers, judges and other court officials should behave during parental alienation litigation. It is not right for a lawyer not to be able to differentiate in his/her behaviour between commercial, criminal and family courts. While this may vary from one jurisdiction to another, it is the norm in several jurisdictions for lawyers to switch from criminal to family law cases. Yet even within the family court itself, one cannot approach property rights in the same way one approaches children's well-being. This paper seeks to fill in this lacuna. In the first section, it discusses the notion of parental alienation from a legal context. What is understood by parental alienation in a typical court of law? This may be different from how it is defined in psychological research. The subsequent sections deal with the lawyer’s perspective, whether they are representing the alienated or alienating parent. The final part of the paper focuses on the ethics of the court itself and of its independent experts.