Must I pay?

[backwardsbike]

All parties in PA.  I am NCM.  Numerous trips to court have resulted in the judge ordering both parents to counsleing for the purpose of increasing communication and avoiding further litigation.  The counseling was at my request and I picked the counselor.

The counsleor was at first very recpetive to me.  Then the father refused to meet with me face to face. The counsleor agreed to meeting with us once a month individually.  This occured for three months.

After each meeting with the father the counselor seemed more negative towards me.  She shared none of the fathers concerns with me and only spoke of the need for me to drop a contempt motion I had filed against the father.

The violations of the court order continued and I filed for contempt. I won. The counsleor was angry that my return to court made her look bad in that she wasn't really doing any counseling.

On my first meeting with her since the contempt hearing she presented me with a "summary" she had written.  Bascially it was just a cover your butt memo that said she hadn't been doing any face to face counseling becasue she wanted to get to know us but would be starting face to face meetings twice a month from September onward.

This summary isn't useful to me at all.  It is about a page long and very neutral.  But I have no idea how often she will generate these summaries and what my X may use them for.

I have caught this counselor in a lie twice now and when confronted she back peddles and doesn't accept any responsibility.  I know my X will be very unlikely to agree to anything that might benefit the children's relationship with me.  And i think the counsleor is biased in X's favor.  I am frankly afraid she will report untrue notions of my being uncooperatve in her future "summaries".

Questions:
DO I have to pay for this summary?

What legal recourse do I have as far as getting out of the counseling?

Is there a way to handle this that will not make me look like I am just trying to avoid cooperating?

Is there anything else that I should be aware of with regard to court ordered counseling that could bite me in the butt?

[socrateaser]

>Questions:
>DO I have to pay for this summary?

I don't know. What did you contract for? If you didn't request a report, then there's no reason why you should have to pay for it. But, if the report is part of your agreement, then you must pay.

>What legal recourse do I have as far as getting out of the
>counseling?

My suggestion would be to tell the counselor that you don't feel comfortable enough with her to be able to fully disclose your "feelings" about tthings, and ask that she recommend someone else. I don't think that the counselor can ethically continue to treat once you express a block like that.

Alternatively, you could tell the counselor that you're sexually attracted to her and that's why you're uncomfortable. That would force the counselor to withdraw from the business relationship or face a serious possibility of a malpractice action.

>Is there a way to handle this that will not make me look like
>I am just trying to avoid cooperating?

See above.

>Is there anything else that I should be aware of with regard
>to court ordered counseling that could bite me in the butt?

Just that if the counseling is intended to produce evidence for the purpose of litigation, that neither you nor the other parent has any reasonable expectation of privacy, so anything you disclose could be used against you in court.