A few rays of promise broke through the clouds this past springtime with word that the judicial administration was perhaps at long last poised to bring greater sunshine to the child custody landscape. This with the announcement that the Office of Court Administration's (OCA) Administrative Board was seeking public comment on a number of reform proposals aimed at the disparate and deficient disclosure rules that have beclouded the custody terrain for decades.1 Now, as summer ebbs in deference to the nascency of autumn color, the word comes down that makes one wonder whether the promise of springtime was real or merely an illusion.
Enhanced Expert Reports
OCA's Matrimonial Practice Advisory Committee submitted a proposed amendment of 22 NYCRR §202.16(g), providing for expanded expert disclosure in contested matrimonial actions. The amendment would have required more specific information in written pretrial reports of experts than is presently provided. Significantly, the proposed amendment also would have afforded parties the right to depose expert witnesses, a procedure routinely used in most jurisdictions. Unfortunately, the Administrative Board has rejected this proposal. Unlike the fanfare with which OCA announced that it was considering the reform proposals, news of the demise of this one came, in the words of one poetic Supreme Court Justice in a different context, "quietly on little cat's feet."2
Forensic Custody Reports
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