What to Look for When Selecting a Child Custody Evaluator

Experience:

Only a therapist with extensive experience in assessing families with child custody disagreements can provide the judgment necessary for forming recommendations that are truly in your child’s best interests.

Ability to Relate to Children:

You want a Child Custody Evaluator who is comfortable sitting on the floor and listening to your children while playing with them.  A Child Custody Evaluator who relates well to your children can get them to share information about their experiences, while minimizing the stress they experience through this process.

Knowledge of Child Development and Attachment:

It is essential that a Child Custody Evaluator understand your children in the context of their ages and development, as well as within the context of the family situation.  The Child Custody Evaluator needs to be able to assess parent-child bonding.

Ethics:

While most Child Custody Evaluators adhere to ethical standards, it is important to be aware of Child Custody Evaluators who have conducted assessments for only one side of a case, or testify for one side as an “expert witness.”  These evaluators may be indebted to the attorneys who have sent them this business.  Also, these Child Custody Evaluators can risk the well-being of your children because they may only know one side’s view, instead of the whole story.  Various Professional Organizations (APA, AFCC) and some state laws have tried to limit this.  Ask a potential evaluator if he or she “Has ever made an evaluation for one side of a family in a child custody case” or “done 733 evaluations.”  This can provide insight into their ethics and practices.

Understanding of the Family’s Lifestyle and Cultural background:

In the multifaceted international, religious and ethnic communities that form Southern California, it is important for the Child Custody Evaluator to understand the values your family holds dear.  This may include the importance of extended family members in the lives of your children, and your family traditions.

Knowledgeable about the Child Custody Laws in California:

California Child Custody laws specify what factors a Child Custody Evaluator must consider. 

Knowledgeable about Domestic Violence/Power in Relationships and Control:

Child Custody Evaluators need to be extremely knowledgeable about how children are impacted by domestic violence within the family. A child custody evaluator must be able to assess power and control issues between the parents in order to understand how the parents make decisions together. This can indicate how they are likely to make decisions that are in the children’s best interest or if they will be able to constructively co-parent in the future.  This becomes important when an evaluator is considering whether to recommend joint or sole legal custody for decisions related to schooling, health care, enrollment in activities, and co-parenting schedules.

Understanding of Substance Use, Abuse and Recovery:

Child Custody Evaluators need to be able to determine when an individual’s drinking/substance use is problematic.  For individuals in recovery, understanding of the process is essential to assess when a parent’s history of substance abuse indicates a future risk for the children.

Objectivity:

Child Custody Evaluators need to be fair-minded professionals who maintain their objectivity.

Assessment of Child Abuse – Physical Abuse, Sexual Abuse and Emotional Abuse:

When you are scared that your child’s safety is at risk, it is essential that you have a child custody evaluator who is extremely experienced in assessing child abuse and is able to determine what is really happening.

Normal Reactions to Divorce or Separation:

Divorce and separation can be extremely stressful for children and parents.  Child Custody Evaluators need to be able to distinguish what is a reaction to the situation and what may be indicative of longstanding issues that affect parenting of the children.

Assessment of Parents’ Psychological Functioning:

Child Custody Evaluators need to be able to assess for psychiatric illness and be knowledgeable about the effectiveness of treatment options, if needed.  Experience working in a psychiatric teaching hospital, such as UCLA’s Neuropsychiatric Institute or a Community Mental Health Center, is helpful.

Cost Effective:

Litigation is financially and emotionally draining.  Comprehensively and effectively gathering, integrating and communicating a large amount of relevant information in a cost effective manner can save you money that may be better used for your children’s education.

Time:

While an evaluation and litigation is hanging over a family, it is very stressful.  Children frequently sense the tension and uncertainty their parents are experiencing.  The sooner an evaluation can be completed, and the issues resolved, the sooner families can heal.  Some evaluators take many, many months to even start and then complete an evaluation.  If you can recall how long it was from Monday to Friday when you were a child, then you can understand a child’s sense of time and why evaluations need to be completed more quickly.

Move-Away or Relocation Issues:

There are various factors that child custody evaluators need to be mindful about in assessing the impact on children of a potential move with one half of a family.  Child Custody Evaluators and parents who hire Child Custody Evaluators need to be aware of any bias or preconceived feelings about whether or not a parent should be allowed to move the child away from the other parent.  Experience in assessment of relocation issues is critical when a move is contemplated. For additional considerations see my Move Away Relocation page.

Ability to Communicate their Findings in a Written Report and Effectively Testify to their Observations:

Child Custody Evaluators must have a working knowledge of the rules of evidence to clearly communicate what they observed and how they reached their conclusions.  Many excellent therapists freeze when faced with cross-examination.  Skilled child custody evaluators have the ability to communicate their thoughts, observations and insights in a way the Court respects so that the family’s story is heard and understood.  When selecting a Child Custody Evaluator, EXPERIENCE MATTERS.