If everyone agrees that the judge needs to know what the child is experiencing, observing, and feeling, why won’t the judge interview the child?
If everyone agrees that the judge needs to know what the child is experiencing, observing, and feeling, why won’t the judge interview the child?
This post is the seventh in series of 15 posts on the subject of custody evaluations and the appointment of guardians ad litem (“GALs” for short) in Utah child custody cases when the judge could simply interview the children instead. You do not have to read all 16 posts to benefit from this series. Read as many or as few as you wish.
The purpose of this series is to make the case for the proposition that an interview by the judge is a faster, more accurate, more particular, more reliable, and less expensive form of evidence than what a GAL and/or custody evaluator provides.
I respectfully submit that claiming a child will know or “feel” a painful or harmful difference between an interview conducted by a judge as opposed to an interview by a GAL and/or custody evaluator is patently without merit. There is no independently verifiable proof for the claim that a judge interviewing a child on the subject of child custody issues inherently harms a child or exposes a child to a risk of harm. And when you think about, the very idea that a judge talking to a child will cause the child some kind of unwarranted harm—if indeed any real harm at all—is silly on its face.
If everyone agrees that the judge needs to know what the child is experiencing, observing, and feeling, what concerns the child, and what the child’s opinions and desires are, the idea that the best way to do this is through an interview by anyone but the judge is as absurd as it is counterproductive. Worse, to suggest that a guardian ad litem (who got literally a few hours of training in a hotel ballroom seminar and YouTube) or mental health professional thousands of dollars and take weeks or months to provide a milquetoast report and recommendations is indefensible.
You may ask why custody evaluators analyses and recommendations are usually so vague and timid. It’s a fair and crucial question. It’s out of fear of being reported to DOPL or sued for malpractice by the parent against whom the evaluator may make adverse recommendations. Knowing this, it is impossible to justify why so many judges and lawyers are so resistant to a judge conducting the interview of the child directly and on the record.
Utah Family Law, LC | divorceutah.com | 801-466-9277
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