Conflict analysis - the CCAT

The future of assistance to the ultimate trier of fact

When judges or other fact finders seek assistance from behavioral experts, litigants are sometimes forced to enter into a psychological evaluation process that is humiliating, expensive and not very well grounded in any empirical evidence. One of the many difficulties in relying on the judgement of psychological experts is that often, a large portion of the data upon which they rely is "he-said/she-said" collected in an office setting. Evaluating this type of hearsay is almost impossible because the research clearly shows that mental health professionals and psychological experts have no particular skill in determining truthful statements from lies or other misrepresentations. Psychological tests are often not that useful in determining custody. Observations and home visits might not provide a representative sample of parenting behaviors upon which to make a judgement about parenting competence.

Whille a multi-thousand dollar psychological evaluation conducted over a period of time that significanly delays litgation might prove to have some worth at the time of trial, is this the only information gathering device that is capable of providing help to a judge?

We have developed an aid to the court that relies on expert system technology to give the judge (and the attorneys for the litigants and children) an overview of the family conflict that looks at:

(1) the practical day to day aspect of the parents lives, schedules and availability

(2) the parents concerns about one another

(3) the parents attitudes toward visitation, co-parenting, commnication, and problem solving

Attitudes can be very important predictors of behavior, and it is often helpful to know where lititgants attitudes converge and are in agreement and where they diverge and contribute to conflict. The Custody Conflict Analysis Tool is an online information gathering tool that gathers information in these areas, compares and describes the litigant's responses to the questions and then provides a comprehensive report showing the areas where confict is high and where agreement is high. It then suggests what good faith efforts can be tried to reduce high conflict areas. For instance, if there is a co-parenting concern that the other parent is not capable of tending to the need of the children during an overnight visitation, the CCAT might suggest five in home observations with specific areas of concentration addressing parenting competence that could be performed by a qualified expert. This type of more limited focus can be very cost effective and might even create more confidence between the parents. If the case requires a more in-depth look it can be done with the added benefit of the CCAT comparison and what efforts have been made to explore important issues.

Obviously, in the most difficult of cases, this will probably not be enough to bring whatever crises there are to a halt, but it is still an economical starting point.

The CCAT can be done online in as little as an hour. Results can be generated immediately after both parties submit their responses. Imagine having important psychological and behavioral information about litigants almost in real time! The cost of the CCAT is less than $200 per litigant. The CCAT is also equipped to analyze itself, so that hopefully in a few years time, with good usage of it, it will be possible to see which combinations of responses produce a higher probability of settlement.

There is no charge for people taking the CCAT more than once, and when it is multiple times by the same people it can provide some descriptive data on whether the parties attitudes have changed, and if they have changed for the direction of less conflict.

The CCAT is not a personality test or a custody "predictor." It merely assimilates self-reported information and provides a descriptive analysis of the responses.

The CCAT will be available for use in June of 2009