Family Reports are written by appropriately qualified psychologists or social workers that are either appointed by and paid for by the family law courts, or privately appointed and paid for by parties before or during an application to a family law court for parenting orders.
Family lawyers are often asked how best to prepare for one.
Interestingly, unless a family lawyer has personally been a party to an application for a parenting order as a parent, they would never had been involved in a family report process.
Family lawyers read lots of family reports but are not allowed to participate in the interviews that go into the making of a family report.
Family reports are an important part of the parenting order investigation process. They enable the family law court to hear from a qualified professional about what they think and feel is in children’s best interests after listening to each of the parents, the children (if they are old enough) and observing how the parents and the children interact with each other.
How to prepare
1. Be frank
2. be honest
3. be child focused
4. Be genuine
Think carefully about what your genuine concerns are for the children; and what arrangements you think are genuinely in their best interest
5. Be prepared for reading the family report
Sometimes digesting what a qualified and independent person thinks about you, with your children being their primary concern, can be challenging.
Freedom Law works with many different family report writers every day. Each family law reporter has their own method of preparing their report. Once the family report is received, we are able to update our clients as to the likely outcome of a court decision as a result of the family report being added to the many factors that go into a family law court making parenting orders that are in the children’s best interests.
If you would like to know more about family reports and family report writers, please contact us at Freedom Law for an in person or online today.