New Jersey revokes psychologist Marsha Kleinman's license, relative to custody evaluation

February 28, 2013

On January 5, 2013, the New Jersey Board of Psychological Examiners issued a Final Decision and Order on Marsha Kleinman, Psy.D, revoking her license to practice psychology for no less than one year, with terms and conditions.

The Board’s complaint regarded Kleinman’s treatment of a 3-year-old.

Count 1 of the complaint alleged that she “served in multiple roles including counselor and play therapist, parenting time monitor and forensic evaluator; conducted suggestive, coercive or manipulative questioning of the child to investigate alleged sexual abuse in violation of professional standards and failed to give a balanced assessment of the fact of the case to the court which appointed her and which was determining visitation issues.”

Count 2 alleged, among other things, that Kleinman “failed to obtain reasonably available information to assess whether the child’s emotional distress was attributable to sources other than the alleged sexual abuse by the father.”

Count 3 alleged in part that Kleinman “failed to inform the court of exculpatory information regarding the alleged sexual abuse when it was foreseeable her input would be relied upon in deciding custody and visitation issues.”

Count 4 alleged, among other things, that Kleinman’s “competence, education and training did not qualify her as an expert in the fields she professed—forensic investigations and child sexual abuse—and her findings, recommendations and representations to the Court demonstrate she was deficient in one or more areas of her practice.”

In addition to revocation of her license, the Board required Kleinman to pay monetary penalties in the amount of $60,000 and the Board’s investigation and prosecution costs of $242,644.