Home Study & Evaluations

  The 2011, 13th Edition is Shipping Now

It is the responsibility of the United States Legislature to pass laws that protect you and your children. Each law on the books has been passed to fix a problem. There is no way to know how the new law will affect the existing laws. It is the responsibility of the Judge to protect the laws. It is your responsibility to know the law, and protect your rights within the law, or hire an attorney to protect your rights. Since judges do not have the time to get to know the details of each child custody case they will appoint an evaluator to take a closer look at the specific circumstances. The judge's aim is to make the best possible decision for the children, within the limits of the law. A judge may place the entire decision of child custody and visitation on the evaluator. It is critical to your case that you know that; to your attorney, the evaluator and the judge, you and your child are the job. It is to your advantage if you present our case in the most clear and concise manner possible. This chapter has been created from the feed-back submitted by hundreds of parents who have completed home study and evaluation. The Win Your Child Custody War also contains ten reports completed by the evaluators and presented in court.
Child Custody issues covered in Chapter 28: Home Study & Evaluations
Purpose for An Evaluation Types of Evaluations Who and Why? Attitude with the Evaluator Mediators and Evaluators Facing the Other Parent When There Are Two of You Home Study Contact Log Sensitive to Control How Important Are They? Negative Information Positive Information What Are They Observing Guidelines for Evaluators	Confidentiality - Evaluator If You Gotta Go Make It Easier for Children Positive and Negative To Be With My Child Evaluator's Report What Costs are Involved? Prepare for the Home Study Book/Video of Child’s Life Thirteen Evaluations Letters from Family and Friends Letters of Love Letter to Document Violation	Help from Hell What Are They Looking For? Evaluating the Evaluation Data to Identify Concerns Note To Evaluator What Can Be Documented? Hospital Visit List Frequent Moving Compare Apples to Oranges Collateral Contacts List Eliminate the Trash Misuse of Evaluation Flaws in the Process Second Home Study	Evaluating the Study Objections Due Process and Bias Burden Shifting Double or Triple Hearsay Right to Fair Trial Personal  Values Friendly Parent Concept Relevancy Speculative Testing/Expert, Credibility Hearsay Filing a Formal Complaint Admitted Over Objection

First two pages of the chapter.

Chapter 28: Home Study & Evaluations
The process is called different things in different places including: 730 Evaluation Social Study Home Study Child Custody Evaluation Family Assessment Psychological Evaluations Purpose for An Evaluation The purpose of an evaluation is to: 1) identify the motivations and behaviors that are causing an impasse in the settling of the case; 2) assess the parenting abilities of the individuals; 3) determine compliance with existing court orders; 4) determine what child location would be most beneficial to the child; 5) determine if a fixed-schedule visitation would be beneficial to the child.	Less obvious observations will be made of parental focus, boundaries, child issues versus parent issues and reciprocal parent behaviors. Types of Evaluations Comparative Evaluation with Recommendation The results of the evaluation may address issues of each parent's competencies and interaction of the parent with the child. The evaluator may make comparative statements about the parents or offer recommendations about a custodial determination. One-Sided Evaluation The results of the evaluation may address issues on parent's competencies and interaction of the parent with the child. The evaluator may not make comparative statements about the other parent or offer recommendations about custodial determination.                                page 377	Opinions must be limited to the strengths and weaknesses of the one parent. Five other evaluations are: Psychological Examination Psychoeducational Assessment Critique of a previous reportr Review of relevant Literature Amicus curiae (friend of the court) document that takes a position on a particular issue Court-Ordered Evaluation It may be more advantageous to request a court-ordered evaluation, rather than a privately obtained assessment. All parties are compelled by the court to participate with its ordered evaluation whereas, opposing parties may not cooperate with a private evaluator. Evaluations are accomplished by a combination of these methods:
Chapter 28: Home Study & Evaluations
Two or three interviews Scoring and interpretation of several standardized personality and parenting tests Reading background information Telephone consultation with attorneys, social workers, and collateral information sources Observation of interaction between parent and child These create Report preparation Finished Reports with or without Recommendations Then court testimony may or may not be required. Interview: By physical meeting with or telephone contact with the adult principals in the child custody dispute; the children that are the focus of the dispute; children related; or who do or will have contact with these children; adults that do have or will have contact with the parents or the children themselves. Documents: may be accepted and considered during the interview. Interview, as a method, is used extensively by conciliation and home study evaluations. Observation: In the evaluator’s facility or the principal’s home, and may include the adult principals in the child custody dispute; the children that are the focus of the dispute; children related; or who do or will have contact with these children; adults who do have or will have contact with the parents or the children themselves. Observation is used extensively in physical examination, psychological evaluation and home study. Testing: In the evaluator’s facility, and may include physical, chemical and/or psychological testing of the adult principals in the child custody dispute; the children that are the focus of the dispute; children related; or who do or will have contact with these children; adults who do have or will have close contact with the parents or the children themselves in the home. Who and Why? Evaluators are usually mental health professionals with formal training and experience in family court matters. Some evaluators are trained to do child evaluations, and they only perform this service for the court. When the court wants more information than the attorneys may wish to present in court, evaluators are appointed.	They gather specific facts that might be compared to make a better determination for the long-term welfare of the children. The evaluator may wish to see the environments and speak to the people influencing the welfare of your children. The product of the evaluation will be a written report that will contain recommendations as to placement of the children and visitation schedule. A good judge will appoint an evaluator to take a closer look at the circumstances in the case. The judge's aim is to make the best possible decision for the children, within the limits of the law. A judge may place the entire decision of child custody and visitation on the evaluator. Judges usually give instructions and make decisions in response to a request from one of the parties. A judge can make a sua sponte decision on his own observation, without a request made by any party involved in the proceedings, such as to order testing or a change to a new court. It may be a windfall or a problem for your case. Consult with your attorney about the ramifications to your case and if any action can be or should be taken. One way to avoid these kinds of surprises is to be well prepared. As an example: during the evaluation process make sure your evaluator has information and knowledge about any special challenges in your case such as: Parental Alienation Syndrome = PAS Malicious Mother Syndrome = MMS Fulsome Father Syndrome = FFS Bipolar Disorder = BPD Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder = OCD Dissociative Identity Disorder = DID Repressed Memory Disorder = RAD Oppositional Defiant Disorder = ODD The evaluator will attempt to determine how they impact a child custody battle. You can protect yourself by making sure the evaluator is well qualified and will adhere to guidelines set forth by the American Psychological Association (APA). Evaluators with the designations L.C.S.W., or M.S.W., should be asked if they are aware of the APA guidelines and if there is a written professional code of ethics to which he or she adheres. If the answer is yes, request a copy of those ethics. If the answer is no find a new evaluator. Prepare a list of qualified evaluators from which the opposition may choose a name. page 378	Even if the evaluator is not licensed, they probably operate within some sort of "standards of practice" or "guideline." Any guideline that is not followed should be considered reason to impeach the report or may even be a good basis for a civil or malpractice suit. Since the expertise of the mental health profession has come to be relied upon by the courts, the opinion of the forensic psychologist should only be based on information that is in their records and available for inspection. If relevant documents have been ignored, they may be evaluated at this time. Transparency in child custody related work prevents information from being used out of context during deposition and trial. Attitude with the Evaluator Be the first one to see the evaluator. Be on time for your appointment. Make sure your appearance is neat, clean and conservative. Be open and honest with the evaluator. The evaluator is trained to hear what you say, understand what you mean, and read your body language. He or she is trained to identify a hundred different signals you give that you do not even know you are sending. Do show a confident attitude. Listen attentively and maintain eye contact when you are speaking to the evaluator. Do not become frustrated if your children behave in an unacceptable manner during the observation period. The evaluator is more concerned with how you respond to your children than with how good their manners are. Have a clear image of what kind of parent you are. The evaluator is less interested in a parent that works long hours to keep a child in brand name clothes and state-of-the-art toys. They want to see a parent who knows how the children are doing in school, who their friends are, what stories they have this parent read at bedtime and if the parent participates in the children’s activities on a regular basis. Identify your relationship with the children. The evaluator knows that working parents often work harder at the relationship with their children to compensate for the large blocks of time the parent must be away from them. Demonstrate how you capitalize on the time you do have with your children. Avoid overacting, interrupting, speaking too fast, getting angry and arguing with the evaluator. Your motives will be looked at in great detail. Any indication that a parent is

Win Your Child Custody War will help you get the best results from your child custody evaluation.

Buy the Full Set to save  

              

Return to Home Page

Buy Set Now!

Customer Service

Pale Horse Publishing POB 1255, Livingston, TX 77351-0022  Customer Service

11/02/2011

Serving Children and Families Since February 1992