A Judge’s Guide

EXPERT HELP
interpreting the facts. That is true whether the expert is a social worker,
psychiatrist, or psychologist. The conscientious investigator will reduce
opportunities for distortion by delineating between facts and opinions, and by
using standardized, validated, reliable tools widely accepted in the profession.
A child advocate also can do fact gathering. However, the child advocate will
not be trained to draw conclusions that require the type of trained expertise that a
social worker, psychiatrist or psychologist will possess. Further, if the child
advocate is a “child representative” or “attorney for the child” they are not
allowed to testify or otherwise present reports to the Court, so they cannot be
considered “experts.”
The Expert’s Report
You have had the most influence on the expert’s work through your carefully
drafted questions. Another area where you may be able to improve relevancy of
the expert’s work to your concerns for the child is in the form of the report.
Many judges will not have this opportunity: the format may be standardized by an
agency that does all child custody evaluations or the evaluator may serve too many
judges to go out of the way to please one, and so forth. But if you frequently
work with the same corps of evaluators, you may be able to develop a policy about
what elements should be in your court reports.
The goal of a report is to provide information about the child’s needs. Data in the
report should inform and support your decision about what custody arrangement
is in the child’s best interests. It follows that crucial domains relating to the child’s
life, with particular attention to those you highlight in your questions, should be
investigated.
Unless you specifically ask the expert to do so, recommendations about what
custody arrangement is in the child’s best interests should be avoided. It is your
job to make that decision. Any categorical statements like “It is my professional
judgment that Sally should live with her father” are likely to ignite a firestorm of
challenges. Moreover, as there are no tools that yield hard data about parenting
capacity, any flat statements about the ultimate question will be vulnerable to
attack. There are easier ways to develop a basis for the best interests decision.
Experts can be asked to describe the possible impact on the child of various
custodial arrangements. For example:
• Robert can walk to school from his father’s house.
• While the mother completes in-patient drug treatment, other living
arrangements would have to be made for Susie.
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