Custody evaluations can have an enormous impact on the lives of litigating parents and their children. Parents and their attorneys often rely upon evaluation reports in negotiating parenting plans. Judges may rely upon them in deciding contested cases. Such reliance invites the critical question of whether custody evaluations are reliable. This, in turn, invites the question: By what standard of care or by what standards of performance can custody evaluations be measured? Sadly, no enforceable standard presently exists in New York.1 This article will address the urgent need for the legal system to impose mandatory and enforceable standards of performance upon those mental health professionals who offer potentially life-altering opinions in the custody court.
Widespread Dissatisfaction
In 2007 the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts (AFCC) published the Model Standards of Practice for Custody Evaluations.2 The AFCC is an international interdisciplinary organization comprised of mental health professionals, lawyers, and judges, as well as related professionals such as mediators and parent coordinators. The Model Standards were published only after intensive consideration and feedback from AFCC's extensive membership. The Introduction to the Model Standards noted the significant migration of mental health professionals to the custody arena, "some without having obtained formal training," and observed that:
Many practitioners are performing evaluations that do not meet the needs of the courts that have appointed them. Judges who are members of AFCC have expressed concern with the poor quality of the reports being submitted to them by evaluators. In fact, problems with the custody evaluation process have become the subject of front-page articles in newspapers as prestigious as The New York Times.3
This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.
To view this content, please continue to their sites.
Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law are third party online distributors of the broad collection of current and archived versions of ALM's legal news publications. LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law customers are able to access and use ALM's content, including content from the National Law Journal, The American Lawyer, Legaltech News, The New York Law Journal, and Corporate Counsel, as well as other sources of legal information.
For questions call 1-877-256-2472 or contact us at [email protected]
