SPARC Forums

she told me that I shouldn't waste my time or money with a custody evaluator.  He said if I agree to pay for it to pursuade the court to ok it.  The judge will have too assume some bias because I would be able to choose who I want.    She said judges in this area wouldn't put much into the custody evaluation because not many people can afford to do it so it is not the norm.    She said the judge may look at it, but will go by his own experience.  

I told her that it didn't make sense for a judge to be put in a position to make a decision on a child on 3 hours of testimony  vs. a professional that will spend several hours with mom, dad and the child(ren).   She said the law is just suppose to be fair not perfect.   I understand it is the parents fault for being in this position not the judges.    We had some arguments on shared parenting and ended the conversation still as friends, but definately different view points on this subject.  


This is definately different from what I am reading on custody evaluators and the amount of weight judges give them.  What do you think?

Your friend may be trying to save you about $10,000 if she knows it won't be likely change the outcome of the case.

I've never heard of a judge not listening to an evaluator. Occasionally a judge will make a decision contrary to the evaluator recommendation, but he/she needs to be able to show WHY the felt the evaluator was wrong on the issue.