Parental Alienation Attorney Michigan — Fighting Back Works

Parental alienation is one of the most damaging things that can happen in a custody dispute — and one of the most litigable. Michigan family courts treat documented parental alienation seriously, and Haque Legal has the experience to build and present these cases effectively.

What Is Parental Alienation in Michigan?

Parental alienation occurs when one parent systematically undermines the child's relationship with the other parent. It can take many forms:

• Telling the child negative, false, or exaggerated things about the other parent
• Coaching the child to fear, distrust, or reject the other parent
• Intercepting or monitoring communications between the child and the other parent
• Refusing to share information about school, medical appointments, or activities
• Using the child as a messenger or spy
• Scheduling activities during the other parent's time without consent
• Telling the child the other parent doesn't love them or doesn't want to see them
• Making false allegations to CPS as a tactical weapon

How Michigan Courts Handle Parental Alienation

Michigan's MCL 722.23(j) explicitly includes as one of the 12 best-interest factors: the willingness and ability of each of the parties to facilitate and encourage a close and continuing parent-child relationship between the child and the other parent.

This is not a soft factor. Courts in Oakland, Wayne, Macomb, and Kent counties have modified custody — including transferring primary custody to the alienated parent — when the evidence of alienation is strong and sustained.

The key word is documented. Courts cannot act on your word alone. The alienation must be proven through evidence: text messages, emails, witness testimony, the child's statements (properly gathered), school records showing exclusion, and in some cases a Guardian Ad Litem or psychological evaluation.

What Haque Legal Does in Parental Alienation Cases

Theresa Rizer has handled parental alienation cases in Michigan family courts for over 30 years. The litigation approach involves:

Evidence gathering. We identify and preserve every available piece of evidence — communications, school records, medical records, social media, witness statements.

Expert involvement. In serious alienation cases, we work with psychologists and Guardian Ad Litems who can testify to the impact on the child and the nature of the alienating behavior.

Motion practice. We file targeted motions — for custody evaluation, for parenting time enforcement, for contempt — that build a record and signal to the court that this conduct is documented and serious.

The end goal. Depending on the severity of the alienation, we pursue custody modification, increased parenting time, or — in the most extreme cases — transfer of primary custody to the alienated parent.

Act Early — Alienation Compounds Over Time

The longer parental alienation goes on, the more entrenched it becomes in the child's mind and the harder it is to reverse. Courts are also more reluctant to dramatically disrupt a child's living situation the longer they've been in it. The time to act on parental alienation is now — not after another year of documented incidents.

Frequently Asked Questions