Presented at the February 2024 AFCC-CA annual conference in San Francisco. Nancy K. D. Lemon has been a leading authority on domestic violence law for over three decades. A retired attorney, she provided expert testimony in many types of cases. She worked on many pieces of California legislation affecting survivors of domestic violence and their children. From 1988 to 2022, Ms. Lemon taught Domestic Violence Law and the Domestic Violence Field Placement at UC Berkeley’s […]
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The world of CCE’s has undergone a drastic change since March of 2020, when the world closed down due to COVID-19. We are far from the early days of the pandemic when we discovered the viability of conducting child custody evaluations (CCEs) safely and reliably using videoconferencing (VC) and other remote technology. VC had previously been used in other clinical and forensic populations to provide useful and reliable data with valid and trustworthy results. Milfred […]
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The Mentorship Outreach Committee (“MOC”) of AFCC-CA, formed in 2020, is a committee of the California Chapter of the AFCC, and includes members from varying geographic areas of California. We are working to develop outreach methods to recruit of a new generation of well-trained mental health professionals (“MHPs”) to work with the various family law communities and family courts, in every county in California. We are setting up local MOCs throughout California, and also sponsoring […]
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edited by Laura Ramsey “Ask Three Mentors” is a question-and-answer column, produced exclusively for Insights, that highlights the fact that members of AFCC are attorneys, judges, and mental health professionals. Many of our most experienced members are committed to mentoring and passing on the wealth of knowledge they’ve acquired through years of work in the field of family law. Each month we will pose a custody-related question to three members of our panel of exceptionally […]
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“Ask Three Mentors” is a question-and-answer column, produced exclusively for Insights, that highlights the fact that members of AFCC are attorneys, judges, and mental health professionals. Many of our most experienced members are committed to mentoring and passing on the wealth of knowledge they’ve acquired through years of work in the field of family law. Each month we will pose a custody-related question to three members of our panel of exceptionally experienced and widely respected […]
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“Ask Three Mentors” is a question-and-answer column, produced exclusively for Insights, that highlights the fact that members of AFCC are attorneys, judges, and mental health professionals. Many of our most experienced members are committed to mentoring and passing on the wealth of knowledge they’ve acquired through years of work in the field of family law. Each month we will pose a custody-related question to three members of our panel of exceptionally experienced and widely respected […]
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Below are summaries of cases from May 2021 to April 2022 affecting child custody issues in California. AFCC California and the Insights staff are very grateful to Dawn for her hard work gathering this vital information for our membership. A.M. v. Superior Court A.M. v. Superior Court (2021) 63 Cal.App.5th 343: In this case, the Fourth District granted M’s petition for a writ of mandate compelling the San Diego County Superior Court to vacate its […]
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You cannot trust what you see and hear: children deny; adult victims deny; and, above all, those who commit abusive acts deny. Courts recognize that parents who learn of abuse of their children by the other parent often act counterintuitively. (People v. McAlpin (1991) 53 Cal.3d 1289, 1302 (mothers not reporting known abuse).) A child’s recantation after disclosing sexual abuse is a common occurrence and too often taken as the truth of what happened. (See […]
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Dear AFCC-CA Members and Friends – We are sending a quick e-blast to seek to inform you about two important pieces of legislative news. SB 241 – This bill was just signed by the Governor and extends the ability of civil courts, including family law courts, to conduct conferences, hearings, proceedings, and trials through the use of remote technology, through July 1, 2023. Thus, for better or for worse, Zoom court shall continue. Paraprofessional Program […]
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Below are summaries of cases from 2020 to April 2021 affecting child custody issues in California. AFCC California and the Insights staff are very grateful to Dawn for her hard work gathering this vital information for our membership. In re A.J. In re A.J. (2019) 44 Cal.App.5th 652, 257 Cal.Rptr.3d 366: In this case, decided on December 24 but ordered published on January 23, 2020, the Second District reversed a Los Angeles County Juvenile Court’s […]
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