Law Office of John S. Weaver

Child Custody and Visitation Evaluations and Assessments

          In contested physical custody cases or visitation disputes, the Circuit Court for Montgomery County, Maryland, may refer the case to the Court Evaluators Office to conduct a custody or visitation evaluation or assessment. This referral is usually made at the Scheduling Hearing, and the parties are directed to the Court Evaluators Office at Family Division Services for a brief intake following the Scheduling Hearing. Custody evaluations and assessments are to assist the Court and the parties to reach an appropriate resolution regarding the physical care, custody, and/or visitation schedule for a child.  All evaluations and/or assessments are undertaken solely by order of the Court. Evaluations and assessments are tailored to the requirements of each case. In most cases interviews will be conducted with clients either in their home or in the Office of the Court Evaluator, or both. Children will be interviewed or observed, as is age appropriate. In evaluations, schools, mental health professionals, other county agencies and references are contacted. An oral presentation will be made by the evaluator in open court at a Settlement/Status Hearing, and a written report is then provided to the Court five days before trial if the case does not settle. More limited evaluations in child custody matters are termed assessments. In assessments, the Evaluator will not interview third party collateral references, but the Evaluator may obtain a school report. An oral report of assessment is made in open court at a Settlement/Status Hearing and the parties may order a transcript of the oral report for use at trial. A description of the general protocol and procedures of the evaluation or assessment performed by court custody evaluators is provided below, and even more fully described in Custody Evaluations and Custody Assessments. If the parties have been referred to Child Custody Mediation, the Evaluators typically wait until the mediation process has been completed before actively pursuing the evaluation. This approach preserves court resources in the event the parties have resolved their issues through mediation.

          The American Psychological Association developed aspirational Guidelines for Child Custody Evaluations in Divorce Proceedings (1994), and The Association of Family and Conciliation Courts (AFCC) has approved Model Standards of Practice for Child Custody Evaluation (May 2006).

          CONCLUSION: The evaluation report is filed under seal in the Court jacket. Copies are made available to the attorneys and to pro se parties. Extremely sensitive information may be released in any other manner deemed appropriate by the Administrative Judge. The process is time-consuming and complex. Interviews with the parties may take two to four hours depending on the circumstances, and sometimes there is more than one interview. Depending on the number of professionals involved with the family, the length of the report and the time involved can be extensive. Thus a Court evaluation cannot be conducted in every case, and there are times when the evaluation may be terminated by the Evaluator. For example, given the scarce resources of money and time available to the Court's Evaluators' Office, the Evaluator may determine that a Court evaluation is not appropriate in a case where the parties have already obtained professional evaluations privately; or, if one or both parties does not cooperate, the evaluation may be terminated, or the evaluation may proceed with the cooperating party. When an evaluation is terminated by the Evaluator, a memorandum to that effect and the reason for termination will be placed in the Court's file and the parties/attorneys will be notified.