Analyzing Child Custody Reports

Effective trial preparation requires that a thorough analysis of the forensic work-product be done in order to determine how to counsel the parent-litigant about the next step in his or her case. A small body of literature has developed that suggests some of the areas most important to consider when analyzing a child custody report, including articles by Austin, Kirkpatrick, & Flens (2011, Family Court Review) and by Gould, Kirkpatrick, Austin, & Martindale (2004, J Child Custody). More recently, the Custody Assessment Analysis System, or CAAS, provided a comprehensive system for the pre-trial analysis of child custody evaluations (CCEs) by attorneys (Wittmann, 2013, MatLaw Corp.).

The inspection of an evaluator's report, focusing on the factors outlined below, produces a “red-flag” analysis: a catalog of threats to reliability that compromise the usefulness of a particular evaluation. The ways in which an assessment may be sturdy and unlikely to yield under attack can also be determined through attention to the assets or strengths of a particular child custody evaluation. The CAAS model suggests four broad lenses for such an analysis, lenses that give structure to our four installments: Management of Professional Relationships, Data Adequacy, Technique Adequacy, and Reasoning Adequacy. The second of these dimensions (data adequacy) is the focus of this installment.