Abduction: The True* Story of How the Legal System Failed a Child

The Abduction is the true story of a mother's quest to rescue her child from a parental kidnapping told from the point of view of one of the lawyers who represented her in the legal battle to regain custody. Unfortunately, the legal system proved ineffective in preventing the kidnapping and grossly deficient in mitigating the harmful effects of the abduction on the child. Interwoven with many of the challenges facing the legal/political system in a post-truth era, the story ends in a tragedy that should have been foreseen and possibly prevented and illuminates the devastating consequences of the systemic failures that produced such an unacceptable outcome.

This account of a mother's protracted battle with the legal system submits the need to rethink the legal analysis of and response to cases in which domestic violence and parental alienation are alleged, including the proper role of judges, hearing officers, lawyers, guardians ad litem, counselors, social workers, and child support agencies in these difficult cases.