General Description of Forensic Services Offered to Attorneys

Dr. Austin provides several types of expert forensic services for child custody disputes. They are briefly summarized on this page. Each type of service is more fully described on separate links on the website. Dr. Austin is licensed in Colorado and North Carolina. He provides services in other states only as permitted by the state licensing law. Only a few states do not allow licensed psychologists to provide services on a temporary basis. Typically, 30 days of service are allowed per year.

Custodial Evaluations: Parental Responsibility Evaluations (Child Custody Evaluations) in Colorado under court appointment by C.R.S. 14-10-127. This is a comprehensive forensic evaluation on the issues of custody, parenting time, and decision making as described in the court order. Dr. Austin will conduct evaluations in other states on the out-of-state hourly and per diem basis. The evaluation protocol is described on the Evaluation link on this website and the fee structure. Evaluations are conducted both on a flat fee and hourly billing basis. Each party to the litigation needs to sign a Statement of Understanding that describes the procedures and issues that arise during the evaluation. This agreement can be found on the Service Agreement link. Due to the expected changes in the Child & Family Investigator standards put forth by the Colorado Supreme Court, Dr. Austin will accept appointments per C.R.S. 14-10-116.5 and conduct CFI evaluations only for disputes involving focused issues and cases that are not highly complex, which was the original intent of the statute.

Work Product Review and Consultation: Attorneys often retain Dr. Austin to provide the forensic service of a work product review of the report and evaluation of court appointed evaluators. This service is described more fully on the Work Product Review link of this website. Dr. Austin first conducts an objective review of the custodial report and then provides candid feedback to the retaining attorneys on the strengths and weaknesses of the evaluation. If serious deficiencies are found, then Dr. Austin is usually retained to review the evaluator's entire case file, provide consultation on the case to facilitate effective expert testimony, and to provide testimony.

Instructional Expert Testimony: All expert testimony is supposed to be educational for the court, but attorneys retain Dr. Austin specifically to provide instructional expert witness testimony, or to educate the court, on the research literature and professional literature on salient issues in a case. Dr. Austin has often provided testimony in relocation cases where he presents his relocation risk assessment forensic psychology model and describes the research on the effects of relocation on children of divorce. In this role he may respond to hypothetical questions and apply research and the risk assessment model to a hypothetical fact pattern that would be similar to the facts in evidence in the case. Dr. Austin also has provided instructional testimony in custody cases where there are allegations of intimate partner violence. He can testify about the research literature and present instructional testimony on his three forensic models for evaluators and courts to use in assessing issues of credibility of allegations, risk, safety, and crafting an appropriate parenting plan when there has been partner violence in the past. Dr. Austin also provides instructional testimony on research and his forensic model on parental gatekeeping. This testimony relates to the statutory factor and issue that often is prominent on how each parent can be expected to support the other parent-child relationship. Dr. Austin is available for instructional testimony on other issues such as overnights for very young children, parent conflict and shared decision making.

Instructional testimony can be very helpful in hearings on Temporary Orders when the court is faced with implementing a parenting time schedule after a separation and complex issues exist, and before an evaluation has been conducted. This can be helpful when there are very young children and the issue of how much parenting time is appropriate for a nonresidential parent, or if there have been allegations of domestic violence and possibly with one parent having been charged with committing partner violence.

Dr. Austin often combines instructional testimony when he is testifying as an evaluator or reviewer. Research is often relevant to the issues in the case so Dr. Austin may be asked to educate the court on the scientific basis for opinions or how research sheds light on an issue and parenting plan options. Testimony on the forensic models in relocation and partner violence are part of instructional testimony.

Trial Consultation: Dr. Austin provides the service and forensic role that is dedicated exclusively to trial consultation with an understanding that he would not be a testifying expert in the case. The services may include helping develop legal strategy or the theory for the case; reviewing expert reports and records; preparing questions for expert and fact witnesses; and working with the client to provide effect fact testimony.