• seminars
  • By ‘clear and convincing evidence’ it is in the ‘best interest of the matrimonial attorney’ to take Tippins’ Ultimate Update course.
    Peter Panaro, Massapequa

Fall Seminar

Working with Forensic Experts   to Challenge Evaluations - Troy

Agenda

  • Trial Consultants vs. Testimonial Experts
  • Integrating Experts into Your Theme
  • Role Boundaries of Trial Consultancy
  • Anatomy of a CaseBest
  • Practice Do’s and Don’ts.
  • Custody Assessment Analysis
  • System: A Step-by-Step Approach to
  • Report Analysis

Faculty

timTimothy Tippins Esq.

Timothy M. Tippins, Esq. is an adjunct professor at Albany Law School and serves on the faculty of the American Academy of Forensic Psychology and on the Affiliate Postdoctoral Forensic Faculty at St. John’s University. He has also served as an Adjunct Professor of Forensic Psychology at Siena College. He is a private practitioner who has engaged in matrimonial and family law practice since 1975 and devotes his practice exclusively to serving as trial counsel and consultant to other family law practitioners on a nationwide basis, with special emphasis on the presentation and cross-examination of expert mental health testimony. Tippins has served in all major professional leadership positions in the New York family law community, including President of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers - New York Chapter, Chair of the NYSBA Family Law Section, and Chair of the NYSBA Task Force on Family Law. Tippins is a regular feature columnist for the New York Law Journal and is the author of the multi-volume treatise New York Matrimonial Law & Practice (West Publishing).

Company Name: MatLaw Systems Corp.
E-mail: tmtippins@matlaw.com

Dr. Jeffrey Wittmann is a licensed psychologist and trial consultant whose practice concentrates on trial support for attorneys in custody and access matters and on forensic work-product (peer) reviews. He serves as a consultant for major law firms nationally and previously held an appointment as Adjunct Clinical Professor at The University of Albany where he taught forensic psychology at the doctoral level. Dr. Wittmann is a recognized expert on the intersection of law and psychology, on professional practices in the child custody area, and on Frye/Daubert issues related to expert testimony in family matters.  He has been a frequently utilized scholar-trainer for judges in Family, Supreme, and Appellate courts in New York and elsewhere nationally.  He has served on multiple editorial boards for professional journals and three Task Forces for the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts (AFCC), including the Task Force for the 2022 Guidelines for Parenting Plan Evaluations.  Dr. Wittmann is the author of “Custody Chaos, Personal Peace” (Perigee, 2001) and of numerous professional articles regarding forensic psychology and related ethical principles. Together with Timothy Tippins, Esq., he authored Empirical and Ethical Problems with Custody Recommendations: A Call for Clinical Humility and Judicial Vigilance, an award-winning and frequently cited article published in the Family Court Review in 2005.  In 2022 his Three Factor Ethical Reasoning Model for Court-Involved Professionals was published in the same journal.  His CAAS-R model for analyzing child custody evaluations has been widely used by attorneys in this country and elsewhere and is the first comprehensive tool designed specifically to assist attorneys in negotiations and trial preparation, a model he outlines in his book “Evaluating Evaluations:  An Attorney’s Handbook for Analyzing Child Custody Reports, 2nd Ed” (MatLaw, 2024).

Dr. Wittmann can be reached at 518-432-1000 or by e-mail at jw@childcustodyforensics.com