Always kind and professional. Prioritizes family and children

Submitted June 26, 2020

Don’t waste your time with this therapist, he is creepy and dangerous. He believes that a parent hitting their child is normal. He is rude with the kids and a terrible person. Stay away from him

Submitted June 11, 2020

Danger. Biased. Bad for all families. Danger. Biased. Bad for all families. Danger. Biased. Bad for all families.

Submitted Dec. 15, 2018

I think it's hard to like a custody evaluator, in general. Who wants to cede control over the future of your kid(s) to some expensive shrink who no matter how much work he does, can never really know what's in your child's best interests. Overall, my experience with Dr. Russ is that he played both sides, was keen on throwing a bone to both attorneys as he knows that his referrals come from the family law industrial complex rather than the clients. He did a fair amount of work, a couple of simple observations, and made some straight forward recommendations. He missed a number of important things about my ex's state of mind, even though he commented directly that she obviously lied on her psychological testing. She also parroted whatever my ex said, so the report ended up reading like a rap sheet for how horrible a husband I was. All that being said, the end report was generally balanced and fair and his recommendations won't have any harmful impacts on my son.

My biggest recommendation to anyone considering Dr. Russ or ANY custody evaluator is to NOT DO IT. There's no point in paying money for something you and your co-parent can do yourself so long as you both have the child's best interests in mind and aren't temporarily insane from anger and PTSD. In my case, he was a necessary evil because my ex is insane.

Submitted Aug. 17, 2017

Very good man, thoughtful and professional. Has the ability to help difficult situations.

Submitted June 20, 2017

Dr. Russ is unethical. He was regularly biased to my ex-wife and defended her even when she openly lied and was called on it. He also spoke with my ex privately after our sessions as if he was her personal doctor. Calling him a quack would be a severe understatement.

Submitted Feb. 28, 2017

Highly dislike this person. He is overpaid and undeserving. He ignored issues in our post court custody issues and quickly ate through our retainer. Much like Stan Katz, Russ is a pathetic excuse for a doctor.

Submitted Dec. 17, 2016

Dr. Russ should not be an approved custody evaluator. He allows his own personal bias (in favor of whomever has the most money) to rule in place of reasoned thinking.

Submitted May 16, 2016

We paid $15,000 for Dr. Russ to do a custody evaluation during our divorce. My children, ages 13 and 11 described him as "creepy" and "scary". Despite detailing alcohol abuse, anger issues and general chaos in my ex's life, Dr. Russ felt 50/50 custody was appropriate. In general, he treated me like I was nothing more than a jilted wife, looking for revenge. Sadly, his job is to protect children, which he didn't do. Following the court order to divide custody equally, I received a knock on my door from Child Protective Services, notifying me that our daughter had been removed from her father's home for emotional abuse. Her therapist had reported the abuse. I was asked if I had ever documented these concerns. YES!!! Over and over again with Dr. Russ who apparently heard nothing. The $15k I paid Dr. Russ was nothing compared to the Minor's Counsel fees I then had to pay to protect my daughter from her own father. For the past 4 years, both of my children have lived with me full time. Due to their father's refusal to attend reunification therapy, they have very little contact with him. I am truly shocked that anyone found him to be fair and just - not my experience at all!

Submitted April 19, 2016

Dr Russ is fair and just. He is tough and calls it like it is. Dr Russ helps to find practical solutions to difficult problems. He really cares about our son and has helped us enormously.

Submitted July 4, 2015