Custody and Access Assessments

Divorce is hard. It rips the heart out as you face the failure of a marriage. When children are involved, it becomes more painful. In wanting to do what’s best for the children, it is often necessary to put aside your own feelings about the other party in the divorce.

That’s easy to say, yet often impossible to achieve. Bringing in a mediator or childrens’ advocate to help create custody and access assessments can help provide the impartiality the separating parties lack.

The lawyer or appointed mediator will sit down with parents and older children (generally over the age of 12), gather information, and create an unbiased plan for where the children will reside and what the sharing arrangement will be like.

Given the acrimony surrounding divorce – some of which can spill over and cloud a child’s opinion – these custody and access assessments aren’t always perfect. A young teen may advocate for a particular parent under false pretenses, putting the other parent on the defensive.

These assessments can be challenged. The aggrieved parent can request a critique of the assessment. The factual data is checked against records from pediatricians, social workers, teachers, sports coaches, etc. The procedures used in the original custody assessment are reviewed, to make sure all standard best practices were adhered to.

Issues such as abuse, both physical and psychological, and parental alienation are looked into, as well as the original assessor’s abilities in prying relevant, factual information from children. A custody assessment critique will not stand without a fight from the opposing side. Every document and statement used within will be challenged by opposing counsel, who will take the critique as a personal attack.

If you truly believe as a parent that the custody assessment is flawed, make sure all your facts are in order critique, and have an unbiased professional prepare the critique for family court. If procedural or factual errors are reported and can be supported with proof against the arguments of opposing counsel, this information will be taken into consideration by the judge when he or she makes their final custody decision.

Be prepared for the possibility that the critique may in fact agree with and support the original assessment. The assessor and the critic both have a single goal in mind, which is unsullied by the feelings associated with divorce: They both have the childrens’ best interests in mind, and nothing else.

Asking both parents to put aside their personal grievances while custody issues are sorted is akin to asking the impossible. Make sure that the mediators, social workers, and family lawyers handling these custody and access assessments are fully accredited and of good conduct.

A separation doesn’t need to be difficult. At Fine & Associates our Toronto divorce lawyers will do everything to make the transition as smooth as possible. Call us today and our family lawyers will help to get you started.