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Hi Backwardsbike


 
Thankyou very much for your response and advice, I think you are right,,,its better to oppose my ex now rather than 'hope for the best later' and then spend years in the courts trying to a decent schedule of joint custody. I don't want to b ea 'contact' dad being peripheral to my childrens lives. I am meeting the lawyer tomorrow and will listen to her and then instruct her to oppose the 'expert' report and my ex's lawyers and appeal to the judge directly .

Thx again 5cents

Ireland, legally I have a solicitor (same as attorney) and a barrister (used in higher courts)

Thx for the advice,
my own belief and my lawyers is that  because the court assessor recommends my wife should stay in the city, he has counterbalanced that with giving her >80% of the time with the girls. I had previously given him a large amount of information, health, nuttrition, discipline, play activities, education, development AND including my work schedule , which allowed me take care of the girls, none of this seems to have been considered. I know I am stuck with te hreport and he won't change it, but I have asked him for a meeting to 'clarify' why the drastic reduction in the girls time  with their father in favour of teh childminder,,,it doesn't stand up to scrutiny. Similarly he stated there were currently too many shifts between the parents.  
Yes the key question is to either fight the report or work with the assessor over a number of years....either way I am looking at the girls being reduced to less than 20% of their time with their Dad.

Yes , have had the same lawyer for a year, she is a family lawyer,,,but isn't creative, and could be a bit more robust in addressing the large number of legal letters I am getting from the other side making various false claims

The assessor met both parents separately on 3 occasions and one time each with the girls in both houses.The report is a short report, 7 pages long, simply laid out where the assessor highlights comments from both parents and quickly moves onto discussions/recommendations. Unfortunately he lists my wifes comments (basically an attack on myself and ability as a parent) which sets the tone for the whole report. He uses selctive quotes and and alot of context dropping when referring to my inputs. I gave him a sixty page document listing teh various child parenting areas which I participated on before and after the separation. He states my wife is looking for sole custody while I am looking for a 50/50 set up. He finds that it is a high conflict situation (from my wife who won't co-operate in anything) but her initial attacks at the start of the report have already done damage. Finally he states both girls are doing well, and the have two very caring parents. He recommends
a. The girls should stay in the city and not move away with their mother as its in their best interests  BUT
b. The girls live 'more centrally' with the mother
c. They gilrs have one overnight per week with their father (either Fri or Sat)
d. The father can pick up the girls after school twice a week from 130pm to 430pm (when I then have to drop them back to my wifes childminder as she is at work)

All in all the girls time with their Dad goes from c 50% to 20% which is what I vehemently dis-agree with. I have a good attorney, but they think fighting the court appointed expert would be detrimental, and that if I fight it, thecourt may allow my wife go down the country making the girls access to their Dad even more difficult.
Any advice much appreciated !!

I am currently going through a judicial separation. On legal advice approximately 1 year ago I moved out of the family home , and there is an interim court  consent order in place whereby our two young girls (2 yrs and 5 yrs) are c 50% of the time with their Dad and Mom respectively. we both have houses less than 1 mile apart.

The court appointed a child custody assessor's (child psychologist) report lists all the nasty allegations my wife has made against myself (which are untrue) in his report, and is looking for sole custody , move away from the family home approximately 170 miles to her home town, with the offer that I could have a few hours access every second Sunday.  I didn't attack her at all in the assessment and proposed joint custody, c50 % each. We both work fulltime, but my job allows me to work from home c80% of the time. I am also able to show my extensive time spent prior to the separation in bringing up the girls.

Now , his recommendation is to drastically reduce the girls time with their day to 1 overnight at the weekend.

Have you any advice on how I can challenge this report  ? as it is very biased in favour of the mother.