Children’s Lawyer

Child Counsel Services in Sherwood Park

Children are frequently seen but not heard in a divorce. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child recognizes that whether or not it is intended, children are the silent victims of divorce. The right child counsel can change that. At The Art & Science of Dispute Resolution in Sherwood Park, we offer child counsel that helps bring forward the child’s voice, views, and needs without placing them into the middle of the adult conflict.

Based on the “Meeting with Children and Meeting with Parents” protocols (developed by Calgary Psychologist, Lori Yasnik, and Australian lawyer/social worker, Jon Graham), our experienced lawyer Karim Mawani can get under the surface to find out what the child’s thoughts are in their language and in their words. He then brings those insights back to the parents and/or the court so that they can understand what the child has to say and what they would like the adults in their life to know.

The ability to hear children with differing developmental and temperamental needs are essential skills for children’s counsel, along with the ability to deliver the truth so that it can be heard by parents. If a child’s lawyer just repeats the child’s words (without asking ‘why’?), no one is any further ahead in understanding the child’s true thoughts and needs.

Parental Alienation

When one parent causes a belief in the child that causes the child to reject the other parent for reasons that cannot be explained or accounted for in the child’s experience of being with the alienated parent, it is called as parental alienation. Alienated children are at higher risk of dropping out of school, low academic performance, teen pregnancy and becoming alienating parents themselves. The right children’s counsel can play an important role when there are indications or accusations of parenting alienation by bringing a reliable report of the child’s voice so that the court and parents can understand what the child is saying (and why they are saying it), needing and asking to be acknowledged.

Contact Karim Mawani today for personalized legal child counsel services.