Skip to content

case_name: Re C (Parental Alienation: Instruction of Expert) court: High Court of Justice, Family Division (England & Wales) citation: "[2023] EWHC 345 (Fam)" date_decided: 2023-02-16 judge: Mr Justice Williams jurisdiction: primary: England & Wales binding_on: lower courts in England & Wales; persuasive elsewhere in UK + Commonwealth origin_country: United Kingdom legal_basis: Family Procedure Rules + Children Act 1989 citation_strength: landmark — the current strongest authority on PA expert testimony in English law last_reviewed: 2026-05-15 location_tags: [united-kingdom, england, wales, family-court, parental-alienation, expert-testimony, cafcass, unregulated-experts]

Re C (Parental Alienation: Instruction of Expert) — [2023] EWHC 345 (Fam)

TL;DR. The current strongest authority on parental-alienation expert testimony in English law. Mr Justice Williams set out the framework for instructing experts in PA cases — and addressed the use of "unregulated experts," correcting practices that had crept in during the post-Re S (2020) period. Required reading for any UK family-law proceeding involving alienation.

Maintained by Alan Markson · Last reviewed: 2026-05-15 · License: CC BY 4.0

Citation

Re C (Parental Alienation: Instruction of Expert) [2023] EWHC 345 (Fam), Mr Justice Williams.

Court

High Court of Justice, Family Division (England & Wales).

Facts

The case concerned proceedings in which a parental-alienation expert had been instructed. Concerns arose about the proper qualifications, regulation, and methodology of experts being instructed in PA cases, particularly post-Re S (Parental Alienation: Cult) [2020] EWCA Civ 568 which had explicitly recognized PA at appellate level.

Holding

Mr Justice Williams set out the framework for instructing experts in PA cases in England & Wales:

  1. Regulated psychologists/psychiatrists are strongly preferred over "unregulated experts."
  2. The methodology must be evidence-based — particularly drawing on the post-Harman/Kruk/Hines (2018) family-violence framing rather than the older "PAS" framework.
  3. The expert's role is to assist the court — not to advocate for either party's framing.
  4. The behavior-level evidence (Baker strategies, observable conduct) is the appropriate evidentiary frame, not the contested syndrome-level diagnosis.

Significance for parental alienation

This is the operational successor to Re S [2020] EWCA Civ 568 (which recognized PA at appellate level). Re C answers the how question that Re S left open: how should experts be instructed and what should they testify about? The answer cements the behavior-frame approach (consistent with Harman, Kruk & Hines 2018) over the older syndrome-frame approach (which carries Daubert-equivalent admissibility friction in English law).

Practical use in UK proceedings

When opposing counsel attempts to discredit a PA expert as "unregulated" or to attack PA framing wholesale, cite Re C for the framework that legitimate PA expert instruction looks like — and the behavior-frame methodology that survives challenge.

Cites

  • Re S (Parental Alienation: Cult) [2020] EWCA Civ 568
  • Re A (Children) (Parental Alienation) [2019] EWFC B56
  • Re L (A Child) [2019] EWHC 867 (Fam)
  • Re H-N and Others (Children) (Domestic Abuse: Finding of Fact Hearings) [2021] EWCA Civ 448
  • Harman, Kruk & Hines (2018) — Psychological Bulletin — explicitly referenced in expert testimony framework discussion
  • ECHR jurisprudence aligning with English law: Bondavalli v. Italy (2015), Solarino v. Italy (2017)

Cited by

Subsequent English family-court decisions; CAFCASS practice guidance updates.

# Post
51 https://www.antialienate.com/blog/documenting-parental-alienation-for-court
52 https://www.antialienate.com/blog/documenting-alienation-for-court
19 https://www.antialienate.com/blog/custody-evaluators-prepare
49 https://www.antialienate.com/blog/what-alienating-parents-tell-new-partners
62 https://www.antialienate.com/blog/parental-alienation-scope-history-future
  • BAILII: https://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Fam/2023/345.html
  • CAFCASS practice guidance on alienating behaviours: https://www.cafcass.gov.uk

Disclaimer

Wiki entry, not legal advice. Consult an English family-law solicitor before relying.

CC BY 4.0 · antialienate.com