Specialties & Experience of this Expert Witness

Additional Information

Social Work Expert Witness for Cases in Children's Services Nationwide: I am a social work expert witness for both plaintiff and defense (with experience in CA, IA, FL, MA, MO, NM and TN). I specialize in cases where the system has failed the child, resulting in unfortunate and sometimes disastrous outcomes. I will review your case, identify what happened, what should have happened and why it did not. Did a social worker fail to meet the standard of care and if so was (s)he negligent or was there a clinical error that can be understood in terms of the resources and systems in which it occurred? Based on 45 years of social work experience, I know that clinicians in children's services (in outpatient mental health settings, in the schools and especially in state child protection agencies) work in complex, challenging situations. Evaluating failure to meet the standard of care, and to act in accord with the values and ethics that define social work, is often straightforward, sometimes not. Records, especially those from state child protection agencies, are an invaluable source of information. Child welfare failures are widely found in the criminal justice system and I have experience with mitigation in capital punishment sentencing as well.