The system by which Americans, specifically New Yorkers, decide how decisions for their children are to be made by parents who are divorcing is an antiquated relic which is based upon a premise that such decisions must be made within the legal system. Indeed, any suggestion that the courthouse is the last place a child custody decision should be rendered is met immediately with cries that parents have a constitutional right to make decisions for their children and such rights must be adjudicated in the courthouse. However, such arguments also stem from decisions by courts who simultaneously acknowledged that children and spouses were a father's/husband's chattel.

The Blue Ribbon Commission, a group of individuals selected by Governor Cuomo, issued an 18 page report purportedly seeking to fix the ills of the child custody system in New York (the Report). In its Report, the Commission focused almost exclusively on one participant in the child custody system: mental health professionals appointed by the court to perform a forensic evaluation of the family in the divorce process.

Mental health professionals typically provide critical information regarding the family: how decisions have been made by the parents in the past; who played which role in the family; description of family dynamics and interactions amongst parents and children; the existence of mental health issues which could impact parenting; and, potentially other information relevant to the family's functionality. Mental health professionals provide opinions and, in some cases, make recommendations when asked of them by the court.