Often families of youngsters find themselves in need of psychological services with regard to the courts and legal system. This can include student advocacy for special education matters involving mediation or due process hearings.

An indepth psycho-educational evaluation for a youngster accused of a crime needing to determine who dropped the ball and when it occurred.

We serve as expert witnesses for civil and criminal cases where an evaluation of the evidence or an indepth evaluation is necessary to shed light on the facts in a case.

We offer the following legal services with regard to serving families with children...

Family Court Matters

For Separating & Divorcing Couples

 Our motto is: "Separating with Civility & Divorcing with Dignity" we assist families in family court by providing:

Custody & Visitation Evaluations
  
  For Juvenile Matters/ IEP Due Process Cases

 
Individual & Family Therapy
Psychological Evaluations
   To assist with diagnostic clarification & treatment recommendations
Risk Assessments
Substance Abuse Evaluations
Competency to Stand Trial Evaluations
The Insanity Defense Evaluations
Sex Offender Evaluations


Criminal Court Matters

For Defendents and Offenders

Psychological Evaluations
Risk Assessments
Substance Abuse Evaluations
Sex Offender Evaluations
Competency to Stand Trial evaluations
The Insanity Defense Evaluation
Therapy
Anger Management
Out-patient therapy for substance abuse

For Plaintiffs/Victims

Psychological evaluations (to establish harm to psychological functioning, such as might be caused by stress and result in depression, anxiety, post-trauma symptoms, inability to work or otherwise function in daily life, etc)
Therapy


Civil Court Matters

For Defendants

Psychological evaluations
Risk Assessments
Substance Abuse evaluations
Therapy
Anger Management
Out-patient therapy for substance abuse

For Plaintiffs

Psychological evaluations (to establish harm to psychological functioning, such as might be    caused by stress and result in depression, anxiety, post-trauma symptoms, inability to    work or otherwise function in daily life, etc)
Therapy




Depositions and Testimony

We are happy to provide testimony should you and your attorney determine it would be helpful to your case. However, your attorney must subpoena us if you want us to be deposed or provide testimony; we will not appear without subpoena. Depositions and/or testimony as fact witness or as expert witness are billed at $350.00 per hour time spent preparing for and giving deposition and/or testimony, port to port. If you are receiving a court-ordered evaluation, depositions and testimony may be part of the services we are asked to provide as part of the evaluation; however, these are not covered under the flat fee of the evaluation. We will require a retainer up-front based on an estimate of time that we will provide, and we will not appear at deposition or in court without pre-payment of said retainer. If we over-estimate time needed any remaining retainer will be promptly returned within 48 business hours of deposition or testimony completion. To assure we are available for you, we require ten business days notice to appear at deposition or in court, to allow us time to clear our schedules, with the retainer due in full five business days in advance of appearance. We are happy to speak with your attorney to help determine if our testimony would be useful in your case.

WHAT IS FORENSIC PSYCHOLOGY?

Almost every area of psychology is relevant to some aspect of the law. For example, developmentalpsychology affects the study of the effects of divorce on children. Socialpsychology affects the influence of group think on terrorism laws. Clinical psychology influences the prediction of dangerousness in the mentally ill. Cognitive psychology influences the study of the reliability of memory in eyewitness testimony. Psychology and the law have a long history dating back to the early 1900’s. However, the goals of the criminal justice system and psychology are fairly divergent.

The goal of psychology is to provide a full and accurate explanation of human behavior while the goal of the criminal justice system or law is to regulate human behavior. Criminal justice depends on precedents while psychology believes our current understanding of human behavior should be revised in light of new data. Lawyers advocate for a particular view; psychologists remain objective and focus on what the data show. Given these differing objectives, one might wonder why psychology and the criminal justice system should merge.These two disciplines overlap simply because the criminal justice system shapes people and there are many inescapably psychological issues in the legal system. Such issues are generally studied by those who practice forensic psychology. Forensic psychology includes research that examines aspects of human behavior directly related to legal processes. It is the professional practice of psychology within or in consultation with a legal system that encompasses family, criminal, and civil law. Most forensic psychologists are clinical psychologists who receive continuing education and training in forensic psychology. Forensic psychologists also may be asked to testify as experts on a variety of topics such as mental health diagnosis, treatment efficacy, and the impact of trauma on an individual.

We have worked successfully with several inner city Charters and public school entities to find resolution with regard to Due Process cases where students with exceptional needs may have had their rights violated by the educational institution or their parent/guardian.

If you still have questions, please feel free to contact us!