Los Altos Psychologist Skates on 3 Year Probation

John N. Marquis, a Los Altos Psychologist was placed on a 3 year probation by the Board of Psychology in March of 2008. According to public documents, Marquis narrowly escaped having his license revoked as he was instead given a number of restrictions to follow or risk having his license canceled.

According to the documents, in 2004, Marquis violated the privacy laws of his client by releasing therapy notes into court records without the express permission of his patient, who at time, was 13 years old. Marquis claimed he had a court order to do so but alas, he could not provide any official court order stating that he was to submit an evaluation report and therapy notes to the court as part of a family custody dispute. To complicate the matter, Marquis prepared reports that are undated, and they were unclear whether the reports generated are of psychotherapy or actual evaluation reports to the court. Further investigation revealed that Marquis was promoting that he specialized in “Evaluations and expert testimony”, however this was found to be just more deception on his part as he did not indicate which areas, if any, he is qualified to perform these evaluations or offer expert testimony.

Marquis did admit, per records, that he deliberately combined the roles of therapist and evaluator and, “continued to believe at the time of the interview that this was ideal behavior for this type of case.” However, Marquis never clarified or recorded with his patient that he was combining the role of evaluator and psychotherapist. (This dual relationship is considered an extreme departure from the standards of care.)

As a further display of arrogance let alone unprofessional conduct, it was found that Marquis had stated he treated sex offenders and was involved in 15-20 court cases in this area, some of which involved courtroom testimony but not written reports, yet he had not had any “significant involvement in Family Court matters, and no involvement at all in such cases for approximately 20 years.” Evidently, Marquis also had ZERO training or experience in family law forensic practice!