Fallin, Donald N Psy.D.

I agree with Science L. and DV H.
I share a similar experience with Dr Fallin (ie knowing misquotes, ridiculous contradictions, apparent bias, and irrelevant investigations)
I could not agree more with DV H’s statement that:“There were quotes around things never said, and a clear disregard for documentation provided to support our claims, while other claims were accepted based on hearsay alone.“
That is pattern and practice for a 730 Eval.
Don Fallin is a part of the family law machine and makes his living from custody evaluations which are referred by lawyers and judges. This results in a strong potential for bias and conflict of interest.
I don’t believe Don has any substantial private therapeutic practice from what I’ve learned from other psychologists I know.
At our first meeting Don stated to me «This evaluation is so unnecessary it makes me want to peel off my very own face». He was familiar with my case from my personal therapist. At the conclusion he recommended a second evaluation.
Once he discovered Cherie Davis was the opposing counsel Don wrote both parties and asked to be excused but was not.
I believe Don was struggling with the conflict of interest of being between a familiar family lawyer who did regular business with him and doing the right thing.
We ended up with such a confusing and conflicted report that the court was able to cherry-​pick what it’s bias preferred against me and ignore the conclusion that I never harmed my child and should have shared custody.
The court found that the report «made no sense» and threw out the recommendation of return to shared custody.
My child and I were ordered back into indefinite supervised visitation for several years until the child finally broke and began cutting herself and threatening suicide. At one point she began hearing voices which told her to harm herself. She has been in several metal hospitals and can’t function in school.
Eventually, my child refused to attend anymore visitation and I haven’t seen or spoken to her for more than a year. She won’t even communicate with her six year old brother whom she adores. He lives full time with me and my wife. My daughter could not understand why she had to be the only child supervised.
The evaluation portrayed the mother as psychopathological and «jealous of the ease of the father-​daughter relationship». Despite Don’s findings, the court (Elizabeth Hendrickson) found the «mother is not perfect, but she’s within normal limits». There was nothing on the report that would support that finding, however the court hung on the collateral witness lies that I objected to. The court took my child from me completely and gave her to an alienating mother with «just because they wanted too».
I was in pro per and did not stand a chance. That is the way it goes in family court. You must pay or you won’t even be heard. The record will be changed (felony BTW) but you will not be able to prove it. The opposing counsel will write the Order After Hearing and will put anything they want into it. When you object it will be submitted without your signature.
The report from Don unfortunately did more harm than good. It didn’t do any good at all, only harm.
I was directed by the child’s psychologist or I would have never know what a 730 evaluation was. I’m sorry I took legal advice from a therapist instead of a lawyer.
All I’m left with is the hope that the nine good years I had with my daughter will sustain her thru this horrible period. Hopefully, she won’t continue to harm herself or make good on the suicidal threats.
Don’t ever hire an Evaluator!
If your faced with naked abuse allegations, attack the allegations with a lawyer and fight it out in trial. If there is no evidence then the false allegations will be legally dismissed quickly.
An Evaluator will not save you from allegations, they will only serve to muddy the waters just like Dr Fallin did in my case.
Evaluators have no accountability for their misdeeds and make purposeful contradictions to provide the court a way of interpreting the information anyway that suits their bias (and there is plenty of that in family court).
Evaluators don’t want to definitively call out the «unfriendly» or «psychopathological parent» and follow the family code of removing said parent. Nobody wants to be called out on the stand more than an Evaluator. If you read an evaluation you’ll see how easy it is for a lawyer to tear apart an Evaluator.
Get a good lawyer that can object to the collateral and irrelevant garbage that is placed into these reports and force the court into only considering what is key to the co-​parenting conflict.
If you are forced into an evaluation make certain your lawyer has a strong relationship with the evaluator (meaning that they regularly send the evaluator assignments) otherwise you will end up with a mess of a report and can outright loose from irrelevant hearsay combined with the judges mere bias.

Keep up the excellent work!!! Thanks for helping the community and succeeding at your therapy profession.

Dr. Fallin does have some smarts but he exercises them in a careless manner. He might serve you just fine in psychotherapy but if you are debating who to choose for a custody evaluation, look elsewhere. He misses deadlines, stays incommunicado for a month at a time in the middle of important parts of the evaluation and his report for us was biased and somewhat random — as if he wrote it in a hurry. He contradicts himself and uses up pages making presumptions on aspects about which he knows very little. He also declared that it is ‘really unusual’ for a troubled child to act out only at school OR at home; that they always act out in both. Any therapist worth their salt knows this to be a very common thing in children– that plays out for numerous reasons. Here is my advice if for some reason, you end up with for a CCE. Act really nice and calm and smile a lot. Reveal nothing that he might determine as even slightly ‘bad’. Just be careful. Do not believe him when he tells you can be very open with him. And don’t swear — not even once. He dislikes it and labels swearing as ‘provocative language used to manipulate emotions’. It’s almost funny. Thank goodness we got lucky to have a judge who realized the sloppiness of his confusing findings. She knew enough to rule in the way that was best for the kids regardless of his $ 8K «report». It wasn’t a waste of money though– I and the kids are now protected from a lot of chaos, bullying and chaotic behavior by the resulting order. And that feels great.

I saw Dr. Fallin for personal counseling. I had been to other counsellors in years gone by, but none helped me achieve my goals more than Dr. Fallin. I like how he helped lead me to discover some behaviors and attitudes that were sabotaging my relationships with loved ones. I know that I will always use the things I learned and discovered in therapy to make my relationships better. It’s never too late to learn/​change/​better your life.
On the personal/​business side, I found Dr Fallin to be professional, highly ethical and straight forward. I’m continually grateful for his insight and the changes I made in my life because of it.