Felix Rippy Family Law Blog on Lawyers.com

Section 107 Custody evaluations and reports....getting around them etc.

Wednesday, March 17, 2010 by Felix Rippy

At least in Williamson and Travis Counties in Texas, Judges like to impose on the parties to a divorce or custody suit a Section 107 evaluation so that an expert who can go to the homes of the parties can recommend things to the Judge and see things that a Judge would never see from the bench in a mere one day trial. The bad news is that these studies are not always followed by the Courts, especially where one of the parties has even been accused of family violence, as opposed to convicted, and where the child is doing pretty well in his or her current environment. The two ways to get around these studies if you don't like the results are criminal activity if it's significant, and what the parties were doing prior to the social study, if the kids are doing fairly well the Court won't fix what isn't broken, even if it might be in the child's "best interest" to do so.

Posted at 15:17 PM

Topic: Family Law