Declared Unfit: How to Combat an Unfavorable Custodial Evaluation
It’s the mandate of the Virginia family court system to place the needs of children above all other considerations when determining custody. While other factors may also come into play, those elements must be ancillary, or at least neutral, to this primary objective.
One of the tools that the Virginia courts may use to determine custody is a custodial evaluation. This is a comprehensive analysis of the fitness of both parents, and the evaluation of the parties’ minor children that can include questionnaires, interviews, inspections of the home, psychological tests on all involved, and the statements of collateral contacts—neighbors, co-workers, friends, and family members who can shed light on the distinct personal qualities of the parent being evaluated. The results and recommendations are made available to the court during the child custody hearing and can significantly impact its outcome.
It’s not uncommon for an ex-spouse or parent to use a child custody battle as a tool to attack his or her counterpart. In cases like these, after mediation or other cooperative methods have failed to produce a mutually acceptable outcome, one of the parents may request a custody evaluation with the intent of defaming the other party. Naturally, some parents are unprepared or perform poorly on these tests and may inadvertently hurt their cases. It could also be possible for the requesting party to manipulate the outcome of the evaluation. For instance, if your ex-spouse has negatively influenced a collateral contact, who in turn speaks poorly of you, it could affect the overall results. For instance, a witness that is negatively impacted toward you, may cause the evaluator to form a negative hypothesis concerning your parenting skills, thus manipulate the results.
A negative custodial evaluation can be a very difficult thing to reverse. One method of combating it is to hire your own rebuttal forensic psychologist to review the work of the custodial evaluator. This permits you to poke holes in the evaluation when necessary. It’s absolutely necessary to retain the services of a reputable, experienced Virginia family law attorney to develop a strategy to fight the negative evaluation. This will undoubtedly include additional testing that may or may not produce the desired outcome. If the parent is successful in obtaining conflicting evaluation results, the psychological professional who prepared the second evaluation will undoubtedly be required to testify in court on his or her behalf.
If you have been the subject of a negative custodial evaluation, or any other psychological evaluation that impacts your perceived fitness as a parent, you need to seek out the services of a Virginia child custody attorney. An experienced family law attorney can contract the psychological personnel that can help build a case to restore your parental rights. Fighting a negative parental evaluation can be expensive and time-consuming. If you find yourself in this situation, be patient, but also be proactive.
Virginia Divorce and Family Law Attorney Claudia Zucker
Have you been declared unfit? Do you have questions about an unfavorable custodial evaluation? We invite you to contact us today at (703) 596-1005. We're always just a phone call away.
