How often do judges follow custody evaluation recommendations?

JonathanApple · 2023-04-05T12:58:17+00:00

Lazy ass judges normally just rubber stamp whatever because how can the person they assigned possibly be wrong.

Fucked up system.

AudreyTooTwo · 2023-04-05T16:56:09+00:00

I don't have a lot of data points. But from what I've seen, the judge usually goes along with a recommendation. Another sinister aspect that I witnessed: the evaluator (in my case, a GAL) works for a living and needs to be approved by the court. If they want repeat business from the court, intentionally or not, some start to submit reports they think the judge wants to see. Think about it, what evaluator is going to make a recommendation they know the judge will hate? They won't get approved again.

So, there is a vicious cycle element to the whole thing. From what I've seen, Family Court runs on a huge amount of momentum. They do what they do because that's how it's done. What brave soul is going to try to put a stick in the spokes?

teetz1989 · 2023-04-05T14:53:40+00:00

Judges typically do follow recommendations. I've never experienced a situation where they didn't (ive witnessed more than a few custody cases). In my situation the judge really didn't want to go with the reccomendation, but still did so he could play on the safe side. Im not saying it has never happened though. Those things are more like guidelines but I think judges just follow them to get out of any responsibility incase they made a bad decision.

Title	How often do judges follow custody evaluation recommendations?
Author	LongWalksAtSunrise
Upvotes	6
Comments	12
Date	April 5, 2023 5:56 AM UTC (3 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/Divorce_Men
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/Divorce_Men/comments/12ca861/how_often_do_judges_follow_custody_evaluation/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/Divorce_Men/how-often-do-judges-follow-custody-evaluation.1213074 https://theredarchive.com/post/1213074

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