I was recently browsing through the web, checking out google and yahoo and having a great time looking up the term "custody evaluations". There's all sorts of information out there regarding custody evaluations--condemnation of the evaluations, advise on how to beat them, suggestions for making a good impression if you undergo one.
I can still recall the day when I sat with my former (eventually fired) attorney and discussed the custody evaluation. What interests me now is the fact that I was never informed that I actually didn't have to have a custody evaluation. I know many couples who dispute custody and yet do not follow through with a custody evaluation. Why didn't I think of that? Like many, I just did what my lawyer told me to do.
Anyway, I was just reviewing a brief summary of what a custody evaluation is and how it is conducted on the website for CT Legal Aid. It was a really nice overview full of great advice and sensible commentary. But there was one, really, really, really, important fact that they didn't include. When a mental health provider conducts a forensic custody evaluation ordered by the Court, the resulting study is not in any way confidential. So if you and your family are the subject of a forensic custody evaluation, you do not have the right to confidentiality or the right to privacy guaranteed by the constitution. In essence, you waive those rights.
Now, before you go ahead and agree to a custody evaluation, if you have the choice--some people don't have the freedom to choose as I did--think about that. I don't know about the custody evaluations carried out by family relations. Since there isn't a whole lot of money available there, those evaluations are probably pretty short and limited in scope. However, if you are talking about a private custody evaluation, these can be pretty lengthy--mine was almost forty pages long and single spaced--and detailed.
Mine included a complete biography of both my ex husband and me, including very intimate information which I would never want public. It discussed each of our children and their particular challenges and talked about our parental relationships with them.
It made statements about my ex husband's attitude towards them which I would never want them to know, or which I would have liked to have revealed to them myself if it became the subject of discussion when they became adults. So that opportunity was taken out of my hands.
The report included teacher's comments about my children which I would never wish them to find out, comments that could be quite hurtful, particularlly since they were not true.
It also included quotations from the results of psychological reports conducted on each of us combined with the psychiatrist's personal take on those results.
The report overall was small minded, mean spirited, derogatory and humiliating and all of it was fully available to the public for anyone to read because, again, you have no right to privacy, no right to confidentiality when you agree to a custody evaluation.
Tell me, did you know that when you agreed to YOUR custody evaluation? Did anyone tell you about that? They sure didn't tell me! Where is it written? How would you know?
This means that if the judge chooses to use extensive quotations from that custody evaluation in his Memorandum of Decision in your case, they are then made available to everyone in the world if it ends up being posted on the internet, which it very likely will, if you have a high conflict divorce case.
And the justification for that? Well, we need to maintain transparency within the judicial system. God forbid we have any opacity or anything, particularly when there are children involved whom you might want to protect.
One way to protect yourself in this situation is to keep the damn thing out of your file and off the record by mediating a custody agreement rather than taking it to trial. The other option is to request that the Judge seal the report so that the public is not allowed access to it when they look at the file. The only limitation there is that any judge can still browse through the custody evaluation when he is adjudicating any other post judgment issues that arise.
It's a bummer folks. But don't think that the Court sympathizes with you on this issue. When I brought it up, the judge said, "That's what you agree to when you enter into a custody battle." Of course, as so many women know who are victims of domestic violence, that statement is totally wrong for all sorts of reasons. Be that as it may, be warned.
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