Children, Courts, and Custody : Interdisciplinary Models for Divorcing Families

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Summary: Roadmap for the Future
Review: Andy Schepard has written one of the most important books on court reform published to date. The recommendations in the final chapter are excellent and track with the most progressive reforms in family courts in the world, such as those reforms exemplified by the Oregon Task Force on Family Law and the very progressive New Zealand and Australian family courts.
We are witnessing a paradigm shift in the way courts, attorneys, and mental health professionals work with families. Prof. Schepard describes the new language which more accurately depicts the changes occurring within the social fabric of our time. This shift requires interdisciplinary cooperation and recognizes family law is a process and not an event.
Through his connections as the Editor of the Family Courts Review and an active member of the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts, Prof. Schepard has written a very forward thinking text, which should be required reading for anyone involved in family law in the world.

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Summary: A Primer For Family Law Clients, Courts and Academics
Review: As one who has read a number of books (both academic and popular)about custody, divorce and family courts, I found Andrew Schepard's book to be a unique and important contribution. It is both a comprehensive, well researched scholarly work and a clearly written and accessible primer for those new to the topic.
Anyone who works in the field of family dispute resolution or is experiencing a divorce or custody dispute in their own life should read this book. Indeed, this book is for anyone who cares about children. It gives the reader an understanding of where we have been, where we are now and where we should be going to develop a humane and sensible system for resolving family disputes involving children.

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Summary: An excellent book
Review: Professor Schepard has done an excellent job of integrating the legal, psychological, and social science research in this book. Drawing on the findings of the Wingspread Foundation conference focusing on the needs of high conflict families in the courts, he recommends changes in the way that attorneys, courts, and mental health experts work together to help families changed by divorce. Focusing on the problems of litigation, he points out that the win-lose style of the courts does more harm than good for families and children in the family courts. He encourages mediation, with the hope that families can reach a win-win solution. He criticizes attorneys who are more focused on winning the case than helping the family. He urges attorneys to maintain the focus on the needs of families and children and set a role model of cooperation for the parents. He discusses the relative risks and benefits of using mental health experts to assist the judge, urging judges to be smart consumers of expert testimony and urging experts to avoid pitting one parent against the other. He supports the use of attorneys for children when conflict is high and parent education for parents to focus on the needs of children.

This book should be required reading for judges, family law attorneys, mediators, and mental health professionals who work with high conflict families in the court.

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Summary: Family Courts - From Best Practices to an Ideal System
Review: Professor Schepard integrates what social science has taught, mental health professionals have learned and courts are coming to accept as the most constructive and humane ways to assist families navigating the difficult transition of divorce. The Family Court model rejects the traditional adversarial litigation practices and encourages more collaborative conflict resolution protocols. Professor Schepard engagingly summarizes the overwhelming evidence that adversarial conflict during divorce harms children, dishonors the parties and sabotages cooperative parenting after a family is reconstellated by the divorce. He discusses best practices of various family courts in the United States and around the world and ends with a thoughtful and insightful prescription for the most enlightened family court for the future. Professor Schepard seeks to integrate insights of the legal, mental health and social science communities into a comprehensive vision of an ideal family court system. He has done so brilliantly. Every professional working with divorcing families should read this valuable book!

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Summary: A Visionary Model of Best Practice for Family Courts
Review: Professor Schepard's book provides a scholarly, comprehensive, and compassionate perspective on one of the most powerful factors shaping family life over the past century. His incisive review highlights the emotional and economic costs associated with adversarial legal procedures and the toll that protracted conflict takes on quality of life and children's mental health. A renowned authority on family law, Professor Schepard effectively integrates state-of-the-art research in the social sciences and the law as the foundation for his visionary recommendations for more humane and effective practices within courts. Most refreshing are the proposed 10 goals for custody courts, which include suggestions for proactive policy and preventive measures that can have a profoundly positive influence on the lives of millions of children and families. As a psychologist working for 20 years with children affected by divorce, I regard this book as essential for anyone who cares deeply about children and families.

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Summary: An Antitdote to the Toxicity of Custody Conflicts
Review: Professor Schephard writes a nuanced analysis of how the traditional legal paradigm enflames the conflict for children and their families embroiled in custody conlicts and offers an insightful vision about how to remedy the problem.
This is a must read for all those judges, attorneys, psychologists, mediators and professionals who appreciate that custody conflicts are more than just a legal claim and are committed to helping the family courts be more responsive to the multi-dimensions of custody conflicts.

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Summary: Child Focused Family Courts
Review: Schepard does what many professionals before him have only endeavored to do; he integrates the fields of law and psychology in one comprehensive resource written at a level accessible to the masses.

Schepard's prose is lucid and poignant, providing concrete examples to drive home abstract concepts. This book would be an excellent introduction for anyone interested in the process of divorce from a child centered perspective. I highly recommend it.

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Summary: The Meeting of Minds and Disciplines
Review: Schepard does what many professionals before him have only endeavored to do; he integrates the fields of law and psychology in one comprehensive resource written at a level accessible to the masses.

Schepard's prose is lucid and poignant, providing concrete examples to drive home abstract concepts. This book would be an excellent introduction for anyone interested in the process of divorce from a child centered perspective. I highly recommend it.

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Summary: Child Focused Family Courts
Review: This book does a great job of pulling together, in a very clear way, all of the important issues facing families and the courts that must address their problems. It is concise and accessible but also contains a wealth of cited resources for additional information. It provides the model for what a child focused Famliy Court should look like.