A
divorce is hard enough without having to weigh the options of what to do with
the children, such as full custody, shared custody, etc. Each parent may
know what they want specifically, and the spouses may have opposite views
on what to do. While it is important for the parents to discuss these
decisions, there are circumstances in which the parents can’t come
to an agreement. Ultimately, however,
child custody is to be decided based upon what is best for the child.
During instances like these, when the parents cannot come to an agreement,
the court is then left to decide what is the best option for the child
or children involved. One of the popular tools used by the court system
is doing conduct a custody evaluation on each of the parents individually.
This price is accomplished through a third party professional such as
a psychologist or social investor or along those lines. Their job is to
investigate through different ways in order to determine what is best
for the child. Custody evaluations involve mostly sets of interviews,
observations made by the psychologist and examinations of different sorts.
The evaluator will want to spend time with the family, together and individually,
in order to determine the relationship strengths and weakness.
Often the evaluator will interact with people that are familiar to the family such as doctors, other family members, fellow employees, teachers, etc. The goal of this evaluation is to look for what would be best for the child. They want to see the families habits, their parenting abilities, alcohol or drug usages, the children’s bond with the parents, and overall the welfare and health of the specific child. When undergoing this evaluation it is important to remember that the evaluator is working on behalf of the child’s best interests, not the parents.
If you have any questions or concerns regarding divorce or child custody,
contact the Law Offices of Hutchinson Law today!