Child Custody Consultants--Ali Thomas, LCSW - Ogden, Utah

Pamela F.

In Ali's profession I would have expected she would be skilled at seeing through the BS that the abusive party serves her. Either she isn't, or the other party really is that good at the façade.

As far as I'm aware she did not contact neighbors, friends, or family. Neither did she directly contact teachers or daycare providers who have all seen the other party without his metaphorical mask on.

Interactions with her felt unprofessional and I thought it was weird that she wanted to discuss trauma from my past as she told me about another of her clients who handled their trauma differently.

She recommended our son resume visits with his abuser. To her credit she did recommend we implement some safe guards, such as supervision from a psychologist and make the change over a period of 3 months so our child could adjust, but the other party disregarded those things. Had she actually done her due diligence I believe she would have known he wouldn't be reasonable about it once no one was watching.

Within almost exactly a year of the end of our evaluation the other party was charged with felony aggravated child abuse (no contest plea down to misdemeanor). Ali made that possible. She put our child back in that situation and gave the other party the leverage to remain in the abuser role.

I understand Ali probably hears a lot of sob stories as people try to twist the narrative but in our case she believed the abuser instead of the victims and its the child that pays the price for her poor judgement.

I hope that over time she has developed a stronger skill in breaking down the front that people like my kids' dad can present, including making direct contact with other parties, but based on my experience, I doubt it.

Joni W.

We hired Ali for our custody evaluation recently and I deeply regret my decision to use her. Ali is incredibly unprofessional, abrasive and unprepared. Every time I had a meeting with her, I was waiting 10+ minutes for her to finish up on unrelated tasks (phone calls, meals, etc) to start our meetings and she often took several minutes to even find my case file. Ali often brought up other cases and intimate details about her clients to me. She was very vague when she asked me questions and the questions she did ask were not productive and had nothing to do with parenting. Ali made us fill out a 25 page questionnaire explaining every detail of my life and she didn’t read it or use it once. I always had to remind Ali about the details of my case, like my child’s name and age and had to explain details of important events linked to our case 2-3x times to her. She often confused our case with her other cases and couldn’t keep track of what was going on. Her office is unprofessional, unorganized and not suited for her profession. We hired Ali in March of 2023 and she took 11 months to come up with a parenting plan. Her parenting plan was clearly copied and pasted from another case, all she did was change a few details like names and locations. There were a lot of errors and unrelated things in our parenting plan from her, my lawyer had to take a week to revise it because it was written so poorly. The parenting plan she proposed was not in the best interest of my child and clearly just a means to an end for her. When Ali came for my house visit, she was 25 minutes late with no explanation, stayed for 20 minutes and didn’t even tour my home. The entire time she was on her phone or talking about herself and her family and then left. Ali met with me a total of 3 hours and charged us $5,000. Ali is not a people person, is vindictive and is clearly in the wrong profession. I would rate her a 0/10, she does not care what’s best for children and shouldn’t be working with families. Do not use her for your evaluation if you want a fair outcome for your children.

Ben M.

Ali was assigned to be our custody evaluator in a particularly difficult custody case.

Through the entire process, Ali was extremely professional, skilled, talented, and helpful. She wasn’t afraid to be a little bold and ask difficult questions to complete an accurate custody evaluation.

I get the feeling that she truly cares about our little boy and wants the best for him, and her evaluation reflects that.

When it got time for trial, she gave wonderful advice, and she did a great job showing her observations. She was clear, concise, and brought up all relevant information.

She puts a lot of time and effort in to her profession, and it shows. It is apparent that she had done research specifically for our case, and she really knows her stuff.

While I never really have a desire to have to go through a custody evaluation again, I would use Ali again if I were ever in that situation.

Emily _.

I just looked Ali up online to get her address to pass on to a friend, and I am truly shocked by the negative comments in the other reviews. Ali is my adopted daughter's therapist and I cannot say enough good things about her! She helped my daughter work through some really tough issues and was also used as an expert witness at court. I just asked my daughter what would tell other people about Ali, and she said, "She helped me with my fears, and made me not scared of what happened to me." We love Ali!

Pamela H.

If I could give a zero star review I would. Ali Thomas is a vindictive, horrible person who doesn't care at all about children. She cares about money. I was hoping for a fair evaluation during my custody battle and I had very realistic expectations. However...she failed to do so many things. She asks for basically your whole life history but then doesn't ultilize half of the information she is given. Her office is very unprofessional and I overheard a lot of confidential information about other clients the half a dozen times I was in her office. Ali has received some DOPL (department of professional liscencing) complaints and one that that I am aware of that she was disciplined for. According to several attoneys, Ali has "retired" from doing custody evaluations, but I am not sure about that. She is horrible at what she does. I wouldn't trust Ali Thomas with deciding my children's future any more than I would trust the garbage man. If you care about your children and getting a fair and throrough evaluation then do not use Ali Thomas.

Lance C.

I cannot express enough gratitude for Ali Thomas and the time, care, and sincere consideration she gave to our custody evaluation. Ali was fair minded to all sides and absolutely helped us reach a good resolution in our custody case. Can't thank her enough and would highly recommend her to anyone that is looking for a custody evaluation.

Emily S.

Under no circumstances should you work with Ali Thomas. I have a deaf 14 year old daughter that was court ordered to see Ali as a result of refusing to visit her biological father who has never learned to communicate with her. I made the appointment, I told Ali that she needed to get an interpreter. We drove 45 minutes only to have Ali tell me that an interpreter wasn't coming. She gave me the impression that the interpreter cancelled. She asked to meet with me instead. My daughter sat in the waiting room for over an hour. Come to find out Ali never requested an interpreter (violation of ADA) but still had us drive out when she knew she couldn't meet with my daughter. She ended up withdrawing from the case after she took our money and refused to refund it of course. She's been court sanctioned for unethical and unprofessional practices. How this woman still has a license is beyond me.

Leilani W.

Ali is a phenomenal custody evaluator who truly cares about the best interests of the kiddos in her cases. She is professional, compassionate, and proposes smart solutions to high conflict problems.