Law Offices of Michael F. Roe LLC

Our law and dispute resolution practice is focused on complex divorce and custody cases, domestic violence, parentage (paternity) cases, and post decree support and custody modification. Many of the office's cases include issues of contested child custody, property division, restoring visitation with children, modification of support, prosecuting or defending Orders of Protection, and domestic battery cases.

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Latest from Law Offices of Michael F. Roe LLC

As a long-term member of the Parental Alienation Study Group, I am pleased to see that there is going to be an excellent seminar this summer on new developments in the field. See the recent post from Dr. Harman. Dr. Harman is an accomplished and awarded scientist and teacher, and has published many peer-reviewed articles and book chapters, and has presented her research regularly at scientific conferences around the world. Dr. Harman’s areas of research expertise focus on the topic of power in relationships: power in how intimate partners influence each other for good or bad. As an applied social
Continue Reading Illinois Divorce: Parental Alienation Topics

For the decades that I have been practicing Family Law/Divorce/Child Custody, I have always endeavored to deliver good value for the money spent on legal fees. Aside from keeping my hourly rates at a moderate level so that they are affordable for all clients, I also have some pride in the fact that my Firm really works to manage the cases aggressively and at the same time, cost effectively.  With this in mind, I thought I’d post some suggestions on how clients can help keep legal costs down in a contentious divorce:
Here are 7 ways to save on divorce
Continue Reading Illinois Divorce Lawyer Blog: Top Ways to Spend too much on your Divorce

Parental Alienation Syndrome (PAS)
Parental alienation occurs when efforts are made to discourage a child’s attachment to a parent. This often occurs during acrimonious divorces, when one parent discourages the child/children from having a relationship with the other. Mechanisms often used to alienate the child/children are extremely harmful to children and include the following:

  • Slandering the other parent. This involves making deprecating statements about the other parent repetitively. This often includes fabricated information.

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Continue Reading Illinois Divorce: Parental Alienation Syndrome (PAS)

In my law practice, a number of issues that come up with divorce and child custody matters are focused around a spouse with a High Conflict Personality.  HCPs can make a divorce and child custody case difficult to the point of being traumatic, and it is so important to have a lawyer that understands these personality types, and has management strategies for dealing with HCPs in the courtroom.  Attorney and HCP expert Bill Eddy offers a podcast on the link below, along with some appropriate advice:

” Here are four of the biggest mistakes when dealing with HCPs:
Trying to
Continue Reading Illinois Divorce Lawyer: Dealing with High Conflict Personalities (HCPs)

One of the longstanding issues in dealing with Parental Alienation within the clinical community, as well as with the legal community, has been the inclusion of Parental Alienation diagnostics in the DSM.  An important group (of which I am proud to be a member) is the Parental Alienation Study Group.
Parental Alienation Study Group, Inc. (PASG), is an international, not-for-profit corporation. PASG has 800 members – mostly mental health and legal professionals – from 62 countries.
PASG is an organization open to anyone who reports an interest in the topic of parental alienation—personally, professionally, or both. Membership in PASG does
Continue Reading Illinois Divorce Lawyer: PASG and DSM

What Are the Signs of a Malignant Narcissist?
Malignant narcissists tend to display some of the worst traits of both APD and NPD, and often have severe dysfunctions in their personal relationships, work, and ability to function in other areas of life.
Their reckless behavior, disregard for others, and inability to form lasting healthy relationships with others can make them easier to spot than people with fewer traits or more mild or ‘covert’ forms of narcissism.
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Continue Reading Illinois Divorce Lawyer: Malignant Narcissists

For parents anticipating a divorce and child custody (allocation) issues, it’s always useful to go over some checklists, both financial and child-related, to ensure that the needs of the parties and families are met as best as is possible during the pendency of the case.  Once a divorce or separation commences, it can be uncomfortable talking with the school or sports teams about the divorce, but it can be helpful and supportive to the minor children when teachers and coaches are aware of possible changes in the child’s behaviors or affect or emotional health.
CHECKLIST FOR DIVORCING AND DIVORCED PARENTS
Continue Reading Illinois Divorce: A Checklist for Parents to be Supportive of their Kids

I can say that most of the calls to my firm involve significant and complex child custody issues, many involving psychological issues or parental alienation concerns. Yet, it is still very important for my practice to focus on financial issues in divorce, as well.  Issues concerning support calculations, and valuation issues of real estate and/or business are an important and essential part of the practice.  I spent a few years, along with my law school training, in MBA school as well. These years of the study of accounting and finance have proven beneficial in the practice of Illinois Divorce Law.
Continue Reading Illinois Divorce: Retained Earnings

Most of the cases that we manage at Law Offices of Michael F Roe are complex cases, sometimes involving serious issues with child custody, and often a HCP (High Conflict Personality/Parent). Within these divorce or parentage cases the courts in Illinois follow a pattern of addressing the issues of the best interests of the minor children in terms of where the child(ren) with live primarily, and what allocation of parenting time and decision making will be awarded to each parent. Mediation, while mandatory in Illinois, usually is not effective in these complex cases. More typically, the court will initially appoint
Continue Reading Illinois Divorce Lawyer: What is a Guardian ad Litem?

The Impact of Parental Alienating Behaviors on the Mental Health of Adults Alienated in Childhood

Abstract

This study qualitatively investigated the mental health of adults exposed to parental alienating behaviors in childhood. Research suggests that exposure to parental alienating behaviours in childhood can have a profound impact on the mental health of those children later in life, including experiencing anxiety disorders and trauma reactions. An international sample of 20 adults exposed to parental alienating behaviors in childhood participated in semi-structured interviews on their experience and its impact. Four themes were identified: mental health difficulties, including anxiety disorders and trauma reactions,
Continue Reading The Impact of Parental Alienating Behaviors

Have your children turned against you? Do they resist spending time with you? Have they joined with your ex in treating you with contempt? If so, they may be suffering from parental alienation.
In this article I provide an overview and summary of parental alienation to help separated and divorced parents, grandparents, and others affected by this problem to identify, prevent, and heal psychologically damaging fractured relationships.
You can read more about parental alienation by clicking on the links at the end of this article.

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Continue Reading Illinois Divorce: Dr. Richard A. Warshak on Parental Alienation

A big part of my Firm’s approach to divorce law practice is helping clients navigate communications with a High Conflict Personality (HCP).  Many times, the Court will order that the parties limit communication to online monitored platforms like “Our Family Wizard” or “Talking Parents,” but regardless of the platform, difficult, angry, offensive or high conflict narratives can emerge in this messaging from one side. Too often the impulse is to respond in kind, but this kind of like-kind response is almost always counterproductive. Bill Eddy is a longstanding expert in managing High Conflict personalities, and one of his most popular
Continue Reading Illinois Divorce: Use the BIFF Method in Communications

People with personality disorders often seem to have variable personalities.  They might be quite charming and reasonable at work and with neighbors and friends, but then transition to chaotic, extreme behaviors at home.  Personality disorders usually begin in childhood or adolescence, and while those around people with personality disorders wish they would change, it doesn’t happen without: 1) recognition, 2) a strong commitment by the person with the traits of the disorder, and, in most cases, 3) years of therapy.
THE DSM-5 CRITERIA FOR BORDERLINE PERSONALITY DISORDER INCLUDE SOME OF THE FOLLOWING CHARACTERISTICS:

  • Compromised ability to recognize the feelings and


Continue Reading Illinois Divorce: Managing Personality Disorders in Divorce

From an article posted today on Dr. Michael Bone’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/drjmichaelbone

 I think the interest in this is related to the difficulty in identifying if parental alienation is going on or if it is not. To this very day, when I am contacted by a parent or attorney about a case where parental alienation is believed to be present, I still rely on these four criteria to satisfy myself that such may likely be the case. While the template that these criteria is not foolproof, it is at least some sort of reasonably and reliable measure to assist in
Continue Reading Alienation in the Parent Child Relationship