On Jan. 7 of this year the Chief Administrative Judge announced that the judicial administration is poised to address a long-standing problem in the child custody arena, namely, access to the forensic evaluator’s report.1 Three specific proposals are presently under consideration. The Office of Court Administration’s Family Court Advisory and Rules Committee (FARC), its Matrimonial Practice Advisory Committee (MPAC), and the New York State Bar Association’s Committee on Children and the Law have all submitted proposals. Though not specifically mentioned in the recent announcement, the New York State Matrimonial Commission, chaired by then Justice Sondra M. Miller, in 2006, offered significant solutions to this and other problems in the custody forensic field. The current judicial interest in reform presents an important opportunity for long-needed critical changes in the manner in which the courts deal with the forensic process. This article will examine the potential impact of a number of the proposals put forth.
The Problem: Data Access
The problem of data access has largely resulted from a laudable though misguided effort to protect against a vengeful litigant obtaining a copy of the evaluator’s report and either showing it to the children or otherwise publishing its content to a wider audience. This has led some judges to impose stringent, even Draconian, restrictions on access to the forensic report.
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