Clinical psychology isn’t glorious, high paying work. The average clinical psychologist works as a part of a multi-disciplinary practice and makes about $78,000.00 a year. That is, unless they specialize as a custody evaluator and wrap their business plan around high conflict divorce.
Let’s take the case of Stephen Doyne, a clinical psychologist that manages to generate over a million dollars in billings a year in La Jolla (San Diego) California by working with high conflict divorce and being appointed by the courts. His credentials look impressive and he has thousands of individual cases under his belt. Yet it’s when you begin to peel back the layers of his credentials and resume that will likely cause your eyebrow to raise.
He names well establised diploma mills as the sources of his degreed credentials and his claims of being a professor at various institutions of higher learning cannot be verified. And yet the courts still to this day grant this fraud quasi-judicial immunity for being a fraud!
We intend to highlight other issues in both Sacramento and Marin Counties with dubious custody evaluators that milk conflict for every dime but the Stephen Doyne matter is now on the court’s plate. Will they continue to recognize and approve these fraudulent credentials? Will they continue to appoint this fraud to be the influential determinant of custody in family courts? Once someone is determined to be a fraud, they should be barred by the court from practicing in the court and that quasi-judicial immunity should be lifted. To do anything less is an injustice.
Wendy Darling
November 4, 2010
How about a companion article to this on the involvement of the AOC and its Office of General Counsel in the Marin Court document destruction and the JLAC ordered audit of the Marin Family Court, and the Judicial Council’s adoption last week, in significant part on the recommendation of the new Chief Justice Elect, of the official “investigation report”/”legal opinion” regarding that document destruction and the AOC’s/OGC’s involvement in it, done by the AOC and John Judnik investigating itself, and “finding”, to no one’s surprise, that there was nothing wrong with what they did?
And thank you for bringing the Watcher back.
SF Whistle
November 6, 2010
Wendy,
I was there last Friday to witness item J….you’re right…what a surprise, Judnick in a moment that should have caused him great shame, read his report finding no-harm/no-foul. The Marin court protest can not be the end to a call for a proper investigation and prosecution of the criminals that have stripped parties of rights—there was no surprise that there is not an actual legal opinion contained in the “investigation”…..just self-serving nonsense.
Great to have the new “watcher”—we have work to do…..
Joleen Steinback
February 9, 2011
Lori Love pHd also received “quasi-judicial immunity” in charges of fraud and perjury. Case is up for appeal. San Diego Family Court will protect the “Gang of 5”
Doyne, Love, Green, Sparta and Gold
Follow the money trail of the Minor’s Counsels and “evaluators” Lori Love went to Las Vegas with a Family Court Judge. Friends on Facebook with David Schulman and Judge Margo Lewis- inappropriate statements made
judicialcouncilwatcher
February 9, 2011
I’m told that the system has a special process for those who wish to take it on. An inbox to the JC’s litigaton management committee labeled “slapp” exists, I am told, in the supreme courts office. When the system is challenged with a complaint, it is forwarded to this inbox where it is ‘managed’, which includes ensuring the complaint dies on the vine as a slapp suit, even though this would be a miscarriage of justice and not what slapp/slappback was meant for.
SF Whistle
February 9, 2011
This is frightening stuff—yet not at all surprising….
Take a look at how a 170.1 challenge of a Judge is handled. Frequently a challenged Judge rules on their own challenge….
Taking the process one step further—-the Presiding Judge ships the 170.1 motion off to the Chief Justice’s Office to the staff member that typically assigns review of the matter to a Judge that often as not….has previously been challenged—-
Golly—Gee—does this sound like a rigged process?—-No appeal permitted.
cole stuart
November 1, 2011
Doyne, Love, Sparta et al, are exposed frauds. Sue them and vote out the judges who appoint them. April, 2012. They are parasitic scum causing the decay of our great communities. Go to http://www.angiemedia.com for details.
Good luck people… April, 2012…
Family Court Professional--disgusted with my own job
May 21, 2013
Folks–take them to federal court–much less likely to encounter immunities. Sue under RICO, 42 U.S.C. 1985 and 1983. Their professional comrporations aren’t immune, and they aren’t under federal law either. Get out of state court–and don’t bother with The Commission on Judicial Performance–they’re all crooked.
California Coalition for Families and Children
January 20, 2018
I hired Dr. Doyne to mediate a custody dispute. I explained to him that we hired him because it was less confrontational than court, private, and would resolve the dispute quickly. He agreed. We signed a contract.
He reneged on every promise he made. He turned what should have been a three or four hour mediation into a multi-month long “custody evaluation”, insisting that I travel from my home in Los Angeles to his offices in San Diego almost weekly. He would also invite both parties to call him to discuss “issues.” I simply wanted to end the process as quickly as possible as his practice of encouraging conflict was causing everyone unnecessary stress. He also ran up his bill from an initial estimate of $2,500 to nearly a ten thousand dollar bill.
I objected, and sent him a letter reminding him of the many promises (that he broke). I told him I would continue to participate in quickly resolving the mediation, but he had different plans. He retaliated by reporting me to CPS for entirely ordinary “rough-and-tumble” with my son, which my son loved for years. Dr. Doyne second guessed my judgment and reported me to CPS. A CPS agent contacted me, interviewed me, and told me on the spot that he saw no child abuse. Dr. Doyne, on the other hand, filed a declaration with the family court claiming that I had “frightened” my son. The court immediately shifted custody to my ex-wife and scheduled a hearing. Outside of the courtroom before the hearing, my attorney and I met with Dr. Doyne. My attorney told me “if you ever want to see your son again, you must pay his bill.” Dr. Doyne simply stared at me and shook his head “yes.”
I was appalled–this man promised to mediate the case for $2,500—yet once I objected to his soaring fees and conflict-inducing behavior, refusing to pay for his conflict-inducing practices, he retaliated. He went into the courtroom and testified falsely, claiming that I held my son over the edge of a balcony. This was an outright lie–exactly the opposite of what he told CPS. My ex-wife used the incident to claim I had abused my son by enjoyable rough-housing with him as was normal for us. Even Dr. Doyne acknowledged it was play, but nevertheless testified that I was a bad father. Clearly he was abusing his authority and intent on inducing me to pay more that our contract allowed.
I was stunned. Clearly Doyne was far, far more interested in lining his pockets than helping our son by helping us to get to a stable situation. He encourage both parties to attack each other. My ex-wife was more than happy to do so–mostly exaggerations, lies, accompanied by crocodile tears. I disproved her lies, but as long as she was willing to keep paying his bills, he was more than happy to do her bidding.
Doyne is simply a crook. He lied in court, lied to both me and my ex-wife, and I later came to find out has lied to dozens of his San Diego clients. His methods are widely criticized by clinical psychologists (which he pretends to be). Yet because his clients blindly trust him, he is (normally) able to pick their pockets with impunity.
Hire Doyne at your enormous risk to your and your child/ren. Family court is a cesspool-more likely than not your attorney is not acting in your best interest. As a co-parent, you have a long-term relationship with your co-parent-like it or not. Every reputable psychologist looks upon the likes of Doyne with disgust–as is appropriate. He is simply evil.
There are more healthy resources such as UpToParents.org, TransParenting, and “traditional” mediation. The key is to identify NON-family court professionals. There are excellent professional mediators who can resolve any type of conflict. Family lawyers will tell you to hire only family law practitioners because non-family law professionals are ignorant. If your lawyer tells you this, he or she is lying. Fire them and find someone who is able to recognize the well-documented weaknesses of family court and protect your interests, which most importantly means avoiding conflict and preserving (or rebuilding) a peaceful, prosperous future for your child/ren, you, and–believe it or not–your child’s other parent.
Good luck and God bless–and stay as far away as possible from Doyne and his kind.