A few years ago, I was in a pretty serious car accident. During the aftermath, I became really familiar with a lot of different types of lawyers. I worked with personal injury lawyers, insurance lawyers, and many others. Perhaps the most important, though, was the estate planning lawyer. I was really young, and neither my wife or I had thought about starting a will. But the accident kind of scared us into it. What would happen if one of us were to die? Even when still in the hospital, I was working with the lawyer to draw up a will. Now, I have some peace and security about what the future will be like if something should happen to me. And I have a lot of experience working with various types of lawyers! The accident was kind of a blessing in disguise in that way.
When parents cannot decide which parent will be the primary physical custodian of a minor child, it may be left up to a judge. Almost any method you can use outside of the court system is preferable to having virtual strangers decide on such a personal matter, so consider using conflict resolution techniques employed using mediation.
If you are unable to come to an agreement between you two, the family court judge may contract this issue out to a specially-trained expert. Child custody evaluators are trained in a social science, like social work or psychology, and usually also have certifications dealing with evaluating parenting situations and conflicts. Read on for some things to keep in mind during your child custody evaluation.
1. This evaluation will consist of a series of interviews conducted by an expert. You may be provided with a list of approved experts from which to choose, or you may just be assigned one. It should be noted that this expense is borne by you, the parents, and it is not a small expense either. The range you might expect to pay goes from $1,000 up to $2,500 or more.
2. Since the expert needs to get a full picture of the situation, there will be interviews made up of various parties. For example, you can expect the following interviews:
3. Being evaluated for your parenting ability is understandably nerve-wracking, but you should take care not to allow your emotions to influence the evaluation negatively. As long you keep the best interest of the child in, as the court will, you will be on the right path. What this means is refraining from:
4. If you believe your custodial evaluation is going badly, speak to your divorce attorney so that action can be taken before it's too late. You may be able to get another expert on board or have another evaluation performed.
Speak to your divorce attorney for more information. For more information, check out a website like http://gomezmaylaw.com/.
Share10 April 2018
