A child custody evaluation is when a family court appoints professionals to evaluate your family and home, then make child custody recommendations based on the results of the evaluation. The child custody evaluation can be a stressful process. If the evaluation results in a negative report despite your best efforts to do everything right, consider the possibility of bad evaluation practices.
Unreasonable Requests
Child custody evaluations in San Diego are typically carried out by professionals such as therapists, psychologists, social service workers and home inspectors. These individuals should remain strictly professional for the duration of their evaluations.
They should not make unreasonable requests or demands, such as stating that you will lose custody if you say something negative about your ex-spouse. The evaluator should never ask any inappropriate or invasive questions, and should only evaluate things within his or her field of expertise.
Bias Toward One Parent
It is critical that a child custody evaluator remains objective and unbiased during the evaluation. The evaluator should only be focusing on the child. The custody evaluator should not form an attachment or bias to one parent over the other. This can jeopardize the results of the evaluation and the child’s well-being.
Spending too much time with one parent, singling out the other parent, showing favoritism and writing one-sided reports are all signs that the evaluation has been compromised due to bias. If your ex is allowed to get away with bad behavior but you are not, this is another sign that the investigator is favoring one parent.
Insufficient or Rushed Assessment
A child custody evaluation should be thorough. It should include interviews with both parents and the child, as well as any relevant third parties, such as teachers and neighbors. If your evaluator does not dedicate an appropriate amount of time or attention to your case, this can result in a flawed outcome or unclear custody recommendations.
Failure to Focus on the Child’s Needs
Overall, the goal of the child custody evaluation is to give a recommendation to a judge regarding what custody arrangement would be best for the child – not the parents. If the evaluator seems to have formed an attachment to one parent, he or she may make recommendations that are in the interests of the parent rather than the child.
A sign of this could be an evaluator ignoring a child who expresses a wish to spend more time with the parent who has been more involved with child care, and instead recommending more custody time with the other parent (the one the evaluator has gotten to know best). Focusing more on parental conflicts instead of the best interests of the child is also a sign of a bad evaluation.
What to Do as the Victim of a Poorly Conducted Child Custody Evaluation in San Diego
You have the right to take action if a child custody evaluator did not do his or her job correctly. If you receive an unfavorable outcome from the evaluation and suspect misconduct on the part of the evaluator, contact an attorney for help right away. A lawyer who specializes in family law can help you challenge an unfair custody evaluation or negative report.
Your lawyer will help you document proof of a bad evaluation, such as instances of unprofessionalism or bias. Then, your lawyer can request a second opinion from a different child custody evaluator to seek a better result. A child custody lawyer will protect and preserve your custodial rights as much as possible.
