Kenneth B. Perlmutter, PhD

Dr. Perlmutter conducted an evaluation of my now 28-​year-​old daughter’s father’s visition request 20 years ago. He really called it right! My «ex» totally lost interest when I agreed to set. his ongoing child support at zero. He did not, however, accurately describe his relationship with me, but aside from my bruised ego, that wasn’t consequential. The only thing tbat has ever come up by my daughter about what Dr. P. made a tolerable process was his very concerned look when she said her favorite movie was. The Nightmare Before Christmas! He appeared to confuse the name with an indicator of night terrors or something! My daughter brought that up at a social gathering a few years avo as a laugh and mentioned it to me when she saw a book written by a different Perlmutter recently. We both hope. By now he’s. Seen it and at least found out what it is and who is its creator! Funny cartoon movie; anything but scary!

When you’re looking for child custody evaluators, the choices are limited. I was told, before encountering Perlmutter, that the courts love him because he is consistent. I can believe that is the case, as he told me what he intended to include in his final report within fifteen minutes of my first meeting him, before he had talked to any of the children. Consistency may be his only positive attribute.
Perlmutter does not listen. He ignores the input of teens because he knows better what they want than they do. At one point in my evaluation, he threw a tantrum. Apparently this is not a rare event, as I have friends who had a similar experience.
If he were an ordinary clinical psychologist, he would probably not have any clients.
If you have been assigned to his practice, best of luck to you. If you have a choice to go elsewhere, I encourage you to keep looking.

I share the concerns expressed by the previous reviewers. I filed a complaint against Dr. Perlumtter with the Ca liscensing board. He is biased and unethical, failing to follow even hisown written billing procedures. If you need a child custody evaluation, choose another provider.

Dr Perlmutter is a specialist (and expert) in high-​conflict child custody situations. This is an inherently difficult task, and many parties involved in it will inevitably feel aggrieved or cheated. Parties involved in it will also have strong and perhaps distorted views of others… Their frustrations will be magnified by legal issues and confidentiality rules. The thoughtful reader will see the comments here as reflecting the challenges of this occupation, and perhaps also reflecting the personal characteristics that got the commenters into high conflict child custody disputes.
In my case, after years of argument and litigation over the terms of two previous agreements, Dr Perlmutter wrote an unambiguous, crystal-​clear, comprehensive parenting document which functioned smoothly, with no issues, for six years (until it was no longer needed). He brought order to four people’s lives previously caught up in confusion and malicious disruption.

Dr. Perlmutter should be avoided at all costs to you and your children!
My youngest child will turn 18 this week so now I’ll finally be free of his complete lack of compassion and professional ability to help families in crisis heal.
My husband wanted out of the marriage, we developed a parenting plan that we both agreed to and were sent to Dr. Perlmutter to mediate some of the few points we had not yet resolved.
We didn’t hate each other upon entering his office, but we certainly left his office with a new loathing for each other. His questioning of how we had come to our agreement proved that he was committed to having us accept HIS very unreasonable and unworkable policies for our children, who were only 3 and 5 years old at the time.
Here is just one example — as parents we agreed to dividing Christmas like this: one year I would have the children through Christmas Eve until 8 PM, I’d then take them to their father’s house, and he’d have them through New Year’s Eve. The next year we would reverse this schedule.
Dr. Perlmutter wouldn’t have it. He insisted that we exchange the children at noon on Christmas. What did this accomplish? That every Christmas the kids woke up in one parent’s home, we had to rush to open presents and eat our holiday meal, then pack them up and drive to the other parent’s home who then had to re-​create Christmas that afternoon at their home.
I’m a religious person. I wanted to attend services on Christmas Eve with my children after we had opened presents every other year. Their dad had agreed, but not Dr. Perlmutter. Why on earth would he object to what we had already agreed to and thought was best for our children?
This is just one of dozens of ways in which he fanned the flames of discord in our divorce and parenting plan.
And if I ever meet him in person again I will tell him to his face that I’ve never met a less compassionate person! He is paid to allegedly ensure that childrens’ interests come first, rather he is allowed a forum for infinite malice and for bloating his own ego.
Beg your attorneys to never send you or your worst enemy to Ken Perlmutter in Palo Alto!

A wonky tower of arrogance. Let’s just say I love my kids enough never to take them back there!
If you’re Bob & Jane Cornfed with daughter Alice Cornfed, this doctor will probably do fine for you, but if, like me, you share neither national origin nor current neighborhood with him, it might be a good idea to consider more open-​minded alternatives.
The impetuousness with which he repeated incessantly during our interviews that he had done «over 500» custody evaluations and therefore was not to be questioned was a caricature of itself. His booming voice telling me that I was wrong when I mentioned a passage from a standard guide for performing custody evaluations (he was mistaken — I went home & read the text again) was as unforgettable as his made-​up «quoting from the dictionary»… well — it was not my OED he quoted from. Recognizing that English is my second language, a pot-​shot not to be missed, I should add that my command of the language is not bad. My SAT and ACT scores were high enough that I was a National Merit Scholarship finalist, and I have continued to write articles and translations throughout my adult life.
When (anglo) mom told him that our daughter was planned, he wrote down just that. When my wife & I (both hispanic) told him that our son was planned, he reported that our son was unplanned. You know how we Latins have babies…
The clincher: a year earlier, my daughter had reported some very disturbing abuse by mom. My partner at the time had seen this, and made a report to CPS about it. My daugther’s attorney (appointed by the court and paid by mom) took that file from the San Francisco city attorney’s office, according to that office, and withheld it from me so it could not be presented during the evaluation. On our closing meeting, Perlmutter told me that I «had better stop inquiring about the abuse, or your custody could be affected.»