Evaluations

Review and Critique of Child Custody/Parenting Plan Evaluations

This service is sought when a retaining attorney believes the Court ordered evaluation contains flaws or wants a second opinion. In this case, Dr. Evans is in the role of a consultant to the retaining attorney. If the child custody evaluation has deficiencies, then Dr. Evans is likely to become a testifying expert.  He will provide attorney consultation to facilitate expert testimony that is designed to be helpful to the Court.

This service is much more comprehensive than the others presented above. The first step is to review the custody report to identify possible:

Recommendations that do not correspond with the case facts

• Data as presented in their report are not supported 
• Issues not properly addressed or analyzed
• Important facts were omitted or not given appropriate weight
• Evaluation methods were flawed, i.e., errors or omission or commission
• Possible evidence of evaluator bias

The attorney basically thinks the evaluator’s report could be misleading to the Court. At this stage of the process, the retaining attorney will be asked to obtain the evaluator’s complete file for Dr. Evans to review.  

It is expected that prior to any testimony some degree of consultation with the attorney is anticipated in order to assist in eliciting the effective expert testimony for the Court. Dr. Evans will usually assist in the preparation of questions for direct examination and anticipated cross-examination.

It is important that the retaining attorney understands that it is Dr. Evans’ professional obligation to be objective in his review and analysis in order to be helpful to the Court. And by remaining objective and accurate Dr. Evans be viewed as credible by the Court and ultimately helpful to the Court.

In the role of expert-reviewer, Dr. Evans usually will provide some degree of Instructional Testimony on the research and professional literature on important issues such as Parental Alienation, child maltreatment, parent timesharing plans, abuse allegations and child custody, etc.  

In the role of reviewer, Dr. Evans will not offer opinions on the ultimate issues in the case. Since he has not met the litigants or children in the case, he will not offer opinions about custody, parenting time, and allocation of decision-making authority. However, Dr. Evans will have reviewed the custody report and the evaluator’s entire case file. Dr. Evans will frequently hear the testimony of the court appointed evaluator and, sometimes, other witnesses. Dr. Evans can express opinions on alternative interpretations of data in the evaluator’s report and file. He can express opinions on the quality of the methods used. He can give his opinion if the evaluator’s recommendations are supported by the data in the report and file.

Parenting Plan/Timesharing Evaluations or Social Investigations

Parenting Plan/Timesharing Evaluations (formerly referred to in some locales as child custody evaluations) are usually conducted under Court appointment. In Florida the statues include FL Statue 61.13, 61.20, and 61.403. Every state has their own statutes that govern the conduct of these evaluations. A Parenting Plan/Timesharing Evaluation is a comprehensive forensic evaluation on the issues of custody, parenting time, and decision making as described in the Court’s order.  Each party to the litigation needs to sign an Informed Consent that describes the procedures and issues that arise during the evaluation. Each evaluation of this type can take over 65 hours of professional hours, therefore, these can be expensive.

Parent Fitness Evaluation

This service is for a comprehensive parent fitness evaluation assessing a parent’s parenting skills and their present psychological state. Whether this evaluation is conducted by the Order of the Court or retained by a client’s attorney, the evaluation will be conducted as though Dr. Evans is an employee of the Court. Essentially this evaluation is a partial child custody evaluation, where the consenting adult is administered a number of assessments and interviews. Collateral informants are sought and administered questionnaires. If that parent has authority to include the children, the children will be interviewed and administered assessments as appropriate.

Individual Psychological Evaluation

This service is for a comprehensive and complete evaluation of the psychological functioning of the client. In most cases, this is conducted as a forensic evaluation ordered by the Court. All conditions specified in the Court’s order will be considered as part of the evaluation. In some cases, individuals may request an evaluation that is not ordered by the Court. The same process will apply, and the considerations will be discussed with the party and their attorney.