It is a very normal occurrence in high profile custody battles to have the conflicting parents unable to reach an amicable agreement about their issues and decide to go child custody evaluation phase. When you get to this point, you are face with the decision to look for either a private who is a freelancer or public evaluator who who works for the court. This is the dilemma most couples find themselves in, while planning to get a custody evaluator.
One great thing about our court system is that you can file a motion for anything, at any time. Of course, it depends on which side of the filing you are on as to how good or bad this fact is. The downside to being able to file for anything ant anytime is that you need a cause to bring a motion. Cause for changing a care order is generally considered to be a significant change of circumstances since the child care evaluation and order was adopted.
The whole point of documentation for an evaluator is to show that you are backing up the claims you have made about your case. The reason you need to back up your case is that you and the other parent cannot agree on virtually anything. If you could agree, then you would have been done by the end of mediation. If this weren't important to you, then you would have caved in by now and been done with this long ago.
If the high conflict has been reduced, but the child has aged and is mature enough to handle more equal amounts of time with each parent, that could be considered significant enough for the cause.
You see, while you may not know exactly who you will be getting, you can look up the qualifications for examiners as required by your local jurisdiction. You may be surprised to find out that they are required to have masters degrees and be licensed professionals. They also have they added the benefit of working with some other professionals full time. They have strict standards they must adhere to and have the added benefit having a structured environment with supervisors that ensure that every evaluation is held to the highest standard.
Lies are of special interest because if you can prove a lie, then you can show they are not to be trusted. If they would lie about one issue, then what would keep them from lying about another? Lies deserve special attention from you. If you know there is a lie being told, then challenge the lie in writing (email works great for this).
Get them to cover their lie by telling another that you can disprove. DO NOT give them a way to get out of it by telling them what they are missing. Simply have them clarify and solidify their lie. Wait to disprove it until you meet with the evaluator.
My experience is that if you fully understand what the evaluator is supposed to do when researching their report, you will likely agree that the outcome is accurate. If you believe that evaluations should be based on morality, personalities, and he said, she said, you will quite probably be disappointed. If you use a strategy based on the court rules, you will likely be very happy with a public evaluator or even two!
One great thing about our court system is that you can file a motion for anything, at any time. Of course, it depends on which side of the filing you are on as to how good or bad this fact is. The downside to being able to file for anything ant anytime is that you need a cause to bring a motion. Cause for changing a care order is generally considered to be a significant change of circumstances since the child care evaluation and order was adopted.
The whole point of documentation for an evaluator is to show that you are backing up the claims you have made about your case. The reason you need to back up your case is that you and the other parent cannot agree on virtually anything. If you could agree, then you would have been done by the end of mediation. If this weren't important to you, then you would have caved in by now and been done with this long ago.
If the high conflict has been reduced, but the child has aged and is mature enough to handle more equal amounts of time with each parent, that could be considered significant enough for the cause.
You see, while you may not know exactly who you will be getting, you can look up the qualifications for examiners as required by your local jurisdiction. You may be surprised to find out that they are required to have masters degrees and be licensed professionals. They also have they added the benefit of working with some other professionals full time. They have strict standards they must adhere to and have the added benefit having a structured environment with supervisors that ensure that every evaluation is held to the highest standard.
Lies are of special interest because if you can prove a lie, then you can show they are not to be trusted. If they would lie about one issue, then what would keep them from lying about another? Lies deserve special attention from you. If you know there is a lie being told, then challenge the lie in writing (email works great for this).
Get them to cover their lie by telling another that you can disprove. DO NOT give them a way to get out of it by telling them what they are missing. Simply have them clarify and solidify their lie. Wait to disprove it until you meet with the evaluator.
My experience is that if you fully understand what the evaluator is supposed to do when researching their report, you will likely agree that the outcome is accurate. If you believe that evaluations should be based on morality, personalities, and he said, she said, you will quite probably be disappointed. If you use a strategy based on the court rules, you will likely be very happy with a public evaluator or even two!
About the Author:
You can get a detailed list of the factors to consider when choosing a child custody evaluator at http://www.drjamesrflens.com right now.
