One of the most sensitive components of a child custody case is the interview of the child by the court. The rule governing the interview of the child is Rule 1915.11. Rule 1915.11 has evolved over the years and has recently been amended, effective April 1. The evolution of Rule 1915.11 is hand in hand with the evolving sensitivity of the child interview. For example, in years past, the prior title and language of Rule 1915.11 referred to the child interview as an "interrogation." Under that prior version of the rule, the rule stated: "the court may interrogate a child." In recent years, the rule has been tweaked so that the word "interrogation" has now been substituted by the word "interview." The removal of the word "interrogation" from the rule marked a sign of sensitivity toward the issue of a child having to speak to a judge about the child's parents in a child custody case.

Prior to the change that became effective April 1, Rule 1915.11 stated: "the interview shall be conducted in the presence of the attorneys and, if permitted by the court, the parties." The prior version of the rule also provided that the interview was to be on the record. Therefore, under that version of the rule, attorneys had an absolute right to be present during the child interview. Many judges and the parties did not favor the attorneys being present in the interview, as it was believed that the child would not speak as freely and openly with the judge with the attorneys sitting in the room during the interview. However, if the attorneys wanted to be present, the rule stated they "shall" be present. If the court did not allow the attorneys to be present, this was reversible error. Many attorneys prefer to be present during the interview, as it provides them with necessary and important information, including the nonverbal aspects of the interview.