Getting Through Custody Assessments

A custody assessment is the gathering of information about the parents and children and determining what is best or in the best interest of the children. The way an assessment proceeds is more crucial than you mat think. If the process used for an assessment is questionable, it may very well affect the credibility of assessor, the assessment and the findings. Following the process is very important and problems can be avoided as we will discuss in this article.

As a parent in a custody dispute, never phone an assessor directly. If you do you may call into question the assessors bias and this may not play out in your favor if the other side finds out. It may be tempting to do so as you may remember a new piece of information you think they really need to know. Just don't do it and follow the process. If you have a lawyer, let him or her decide the best way of bringing this information forth.

If you are paying for the assessment to be done, then make sure that either the money is held in trust or that is paid prior to the assessment. This will avoid the assessor potentially writing a biased report due to payment problems.

Your lawyer should deliver a copy of the legal file and all supporting evidence, reports and other pertinent documentation, before direct interviews with the parents and/or children, are setup. This will allow the assessor to be prepared and he or she will be able to focus on the issues during the interviews.

Some may say that the order the interviews take place may have an advantage to a party, but generally that is false. Whether you are interviewed first or not should no affect the custody assessment. You should be able to bring up any issues that may come up during the assessment to the assessor during the course of several interviews.

Following the interviews, the assessor will most likely schedule interviews with schools, doctors and other professionals involved with the children. If needed they will also plan interviews with friends and family.

Once all of the data collection and interviews are completed, a custody assessment report is written by the assessor. In some cases, the report will be sent to each side and filed with the court simultaneously and in other cases the report will be given at a meeting with all the parties involved.

Not many disputes get as heated and emotional as do contested custody and access disputes. It remains in everyone's best interest to follow the process of a custody assessment so that the integrity of the assessment is not called into question. Keep calm, keep informed and you will get through it.

Article written by Ruth
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