Who We Are
Richard Ducote
Richard Ducote’s nationwide practice includes custody, tort, and ‘termination of parental rights’ cases on behalf of victims of child sexual abuse and domestic violence.
His primary concentration involves cases where courts have granted custody of children to child molesters and domestic violence perpetrators.
Ducote has tried cases in over 50 Louisiana courts and, as counsel pro hac vice, in 45 states. Early in his career, he was appointed special assistant district attorney in 19 Louisiana parishes.
He is admitted to the Bar of the U.S. Supreme Court; U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Third, Fourth, Fifth, and Ninth Circuits; U.S. District Courts for the Eastern, Middle, and Western Districts of Louisiana, the Eastern and Western Districts of Pennsylvania; the Northern and Eastern Districts of Texas; and the District of Colorado.
Among his many accomplishments, Ducote won his first case before the U.S. Supreme Court, granting children the right to sue their abusers. He obtained multi-million-dollar verdicts on behalf of sexually abused children and adults. He’s drafted protective statutes related to child welfare, termination of parental rights, and child custody. Several have been adopted by state legislatures.
Ducote is an ardent opponent of ‘Parental Alienation Syndrome,’ having successfully cross-examined its infamous creator, the discredited pro-pedophile psychologist Richard Gardner, and other proponents of evidence based on bogus science. His is the author of a highly regarded critique of guardians ad litem and child custody evaluators.
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A Career in Advocacy
Ducote is an ardent critic of due-process flaws in family courts and the inappropriate delegation of authority to mental health evaluators and discredited theories in custody cases.
He testified before Louisiana legislators in 2019, arguing against HB 248, which would have expanded the use of “parenting coordinators” in child custody cases.
In 2018, Ducote was one of three lawyers to write a comprehensive overhaul of Louisiana’s child custody laws to better protect children in the family courts. For this, he was honored as a legislative champion by the Southeast Louisiana United Way.
He was appointed to the clinical psychiatry faculty at LSU Medical Center in New Orleans and regularly conducts mandated certification training for California custody evaluators.
Ducote has served as an invited trainer and presenter at many national, state and local programs sponsored by the American Bar Association, the U.S. Justice Department, the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, the Institute on Violence, Abuse & Trauma, state and national domestic-violence coalitions, child-welfare agencies, and law schools.
His work has resulted in honors and awards from Justice for Children, The Northern Plains Tribal Institute, The National Association of Social Workers, the Young Lawyers Division of the ABA, the LSU School of Social Work, the Louisiana Foster Parent Association, and the California Protective Parents Association.
In November 2025, the Covington, Louisiana-based attorney was named a 2025 Champion of Change by the nonprofit Sexual Trauma Awareness and Response (STAR), which advocates for survivors of sexual assault and human trafficking. The recognition honors exceptional individuals who have demonstrated unwavering commitment, compassion and support for survivors.
In 2015, Ducote was awarded the Judge Richard Ware Memorial Award by the Louisiana Children’s Trust Fund for his years of work in child-abuse prevention.
In 2012, he received the Sol Gthard Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Organization of Forensic Social Work.
Ducote was featured in the 2005 PBS documentary Breaking the Silence: Children’s Stories, and in Small Justice: Little Justice in America’s Family Courts.
Articles in Newsweek, Oprah Magazine, Parade Magazine, Money Magazine, and many newspapers around the country have quoted him.
Forgotten Children
“In 1978, soon after taking my lawyer’s oath, I met one of my first clients whom I was appointed to represent by the Jefferson Parish Juvenile Court as part of a special program I started in conjunction with Tulane’s law school. I was happily greeted by a very kind nun at the large entrance door of the St. Vincent’s Infant Home.
“She led me into the nursery and then to a crib. She smiled and told me I was the first lawyer they had seen there. She lifted the frail, abandoned child, only a few months old, and put him in my arms. She tiptoed out and quietly closed the door.
“As I sat in the dark, gently rocking this vulnerable baby – my client, with the rhythmic creaking of the chair the only sound – I knew my life’s calling was sealed.” — Richard Ducote
Richard Ducote’s Scorching Cross Examination of a Parental Alienation Expert
In the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Family Court Division, Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021. Richard Ducote cross-examined Robert Evans, Ph.D, a purported expert in forensic family law cases. Click here to read the transcript in its entirety.
Ducote: Is it your opinion that a child being subjected to parental alienation is worse than the child being physically abused and beaten by a parent?
Evans: In some circumstances, yes.
Ducote: So let’s say if a child is beaten by a parent with a hammer, okay, is that worse or not as bad as parental alienation?
Evans: I can’t give you an opinion on that.
Ducote: How about tied up with ropes? Would that be as bad as parental alienation?
Evans: Again, I think it depends on the circumstances and the specifics, so I can’t give you an answer on that, either.
Ducote: So what type of circumstances, hypothetically, could a parent tie up their child with ropes and that not be as bad as parental alienation?
Evans: I really can’t speculate on all those kinds of details. I’m telling you what I’m familiar with in terms of the literature and their research.
Ducote: Well, what about, in your opinion, can a child — let me rephrase that. Can a parent inflict more damage by parental alienation to a child than the parent could inflict by, saying, breaking the child’s bones?
Evans: Conceivably, yes.
Ducote: Okay. So parental alienation, in your view, is worse than a parent breaking their child’s bones?
Evans: Potentially, it could be.
Ducote: Okay. So let’s say if a parent intentionally breaks the child’s arm in an act of abuse, is it your opinion that that could be less harmful to the child than parental alienation?
Evans: Potentially, yes.
Ducote: Okay. How about breaking the child’s leg?
Evans: Potentially, yes.
Ducote: How about breaking both legs?
Evans: Again, the same answer. Let me see if I can help.
Ducote: How about you answer the questions? Let’s —
Evans: Okay. So the answer is, potentially yes. You don’t want me to explain it.
Ducote: Okay, so it is your opinion that parental alienation can be worse for a child — and let’s be more specific, say a four-year-old child — can be worse for the four-year-old child than the parent, say, breaking both of the child’s arms and both of the child’s legs in an act of abuse. Is that your opinion?
Evans: It potentially could be.
Ducote: How about, you have a four-year-old child, and the parent punches the child in the face and leaves two black eyes. Could, in your opinion, parent alienation be worse for the child than that?
Evans: Potentially, yes.
Ducote: How about if you have a four-year-old, and the father forces the child to perform fellatio on him. Could that be less harmful to the child than parental alienation?
Evans: Potentially yes.
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