It is a very emotional and sad situation when a parent and child have a breakdown in their relationship. This can be due to many different causes and this post is not necessarily about those causes but rather to provide you with suggestions if that breakdown occurs.

As the term “parental alienation” is gaining popularity in the court system, it is becoming more and more important to ensure that the term does not mask intimate partner violence (IPV). Unfortunately, the defense to a parental alienation allegation can sometimes be misused to draw attention away from IPV, with detrimental results for families and children experiencing IPV.

Custody reversal refers to the removal of children from one parent into the sole custody of the other parent – either temporarily or permanently. This court ordered decision can occur for a variety of reasons, one of them being in severe cases of parental alienation.

The concept of “Alienation” has a grounds for reversing parenting rights has been receiving increasing attention over the last few years. As stated in SMP Law’s post on parental alienation “What is Alienation?"  a common theme of alienation is “a child is expressing extreme negative feelings about a parent that are not supported by their experiences”. 

SMP Law summarizes some significant cases in 2021 in our annual Year In Review post. Find out more about how SMP Law works with their clients.