Child Custody Evaluation - What You Need to Know About Child Custody Evaluators

Custody Evaluators play a major role in the child custody process. In fact, they play the biggest role of all when it comes to determining who will get what, what rules and guidelines will be put into place, and how the child will be handled by their parents.

If you don’t agree on your child custody issues and you expect a long drawn out battle then you may make it through to the Custody Evaluation phase, sometimes know as a 730 Evaluation. Not all jurisdictions have an Evaluation phase. Some jurisdictions have it rolled together with the mediation phase. No matter how your jurisdiction handles it, this is the most critical phase of your custody battle and you will want to be as clear headed and well prepared as you can humanly be.

In order to explain what you need to know to prepare for this phase, I will first explain what Evaluation is. Evaluation is the process where both parents meet separately with a highly qualified professional and layout their differences, concerns, desires, evidence, and most importantly offer their resolutions. Evaluation includes interviewing collateral contacts (that is people that know you and your spouse, like nannies, roommates, grandparents), and evidence.

If you search Custody Evaluators online, you will find some lively discussions about them. The reason I bring this up is that when people are disappointed in the outcome of the Custody Evaluation, they commonly place blame on the Child Custody Evaluator. They question how the evaluator could give “whatever” to a person of bad character. The parent makes a moral interpretation about the parental worthiness of the other parent. What they don’t anticipate or plan for is the Evaluator’s ultimate responsibility to the child.

Morality or the lack thereof, isn’t a reason to keep a child from their parent (unless it is somehow directly affecting the child). I won’t say anymore about that now, except to say that just keep in mind that they are looking for facts not moral opinions.

You need to be at your best, be truthful, do not put the other parent in a negative light, present your facts in a straight forward and articulate manner. Refrain from bringing up emotional baggage or sounding like you belong on Jerry Springer. Here is the most important fact of all. This is the time you get to tell your side of the story and present your case. All of the work you have done, all the groundwork you have laid, and the investment of time, money, and strategy culminates here.

Custody Evaluations will typically take 10-40 hours of the Evaluators time depending on how involved the case is, how much difference of opinion, how much evidence, and how many other people are interviewed. It may include parent/child play time as well to allow the Evaluator to observe how both parents interact with the child. Because of the amount of time it is common that the parents split the cost which can easily be $2000-$3000.

Once the evaluation is complete the Evaluator will create a report outlining their recommendation for a Custody Order. There is an opportunity to review this report and if you think the Evaluator got it wrong you can petition the court for another evaluation. If there are minor things you don’t like, you can negotiate with the other parent for changes. But if most of it is right, you may just want to adopt it.