What Attorneys Should Know About the Parenting Fitness Evaluation Process
By David Lombard, PhD
When a family law case reaches the point where a parenting fitness or child custody evaluation is ordered, attorneys are often fielding two kinds of questions at once: what the process actually involves, and how to prepare a client for it. Having conducted these evaluations for over thirty years, I've found that cases move more smoothly, and evaluations hold up better under scrutiny, when attorneys and evaluators share a clear, current understanding of how the process is supposed to work.
What a Parenting Fitness Evaluation Is — and Isn't
A parenting fitness or child custody evaluation is a structured psychological assessment conducted to help the court understand each parent's capacities, the needs of the child, and the fit between them — not a determination of who "wins." The American Psychological Association's guidelines for these evaluations describe the work as centered on the psychological best interests of the child, informed by the family's particular circumstances rather than a fixed checklist (APA Guidelines for Child Custody Evaluations in Family Law Proceedings).
It's worth attorneys reinforcing this distinction with clients early. An evaluation is not an adversarial proceeding in the way a deposition is, even though its findings will be used in one. Clients who understand that the evaluator's obligation is to the child's welfare, not to either party, tend to participate more openly — which produces a more complete and more defensible record.
The Data an Evaluator Relies On
Competent evaluations draw on multiple sources rather than any single method. Depending on the referral question, this typically includes clinical interviews with each parent, direct observation of parent-child interaction, collateral contacts (teachers, therapists, family members, and others with relevant knowledge of the family), review of records, and, where indicated, psychological testing. The AFCC's Guidelines for Parenting Plan Evaluations in Family Law Cases emphasize that evaluators should be transparent about which data sources informed each finding and should avoid conclusions that outrun the evidence gathered (AFCC Guidelines for Parenting Plan Evaluations, 2022).
For attorneys, this has a practical implication: a report's credibility in court often turns less on its ultimate recommendation than on whether each step of the evaluator's reasoning is traceable back to specific, documented data. When reviewing a report — whether your own expert's or one to be challenged — that traceability is the first thing worth checking.
Timeline and What Drives It
Parenting fitness evaluations are rarely fast, and for good reason. Multiple interviews, observation sessions, collateral outreach, and testing (when used) all take time to schedule and complete responsibly. Rushing an evaluation to meet a court date tends to produce a thinner record and a more vulnerable report. Attorneys can help their clients — and the process — by building realistic timeline expectations into case planning from the outset, rather than treating the evaluation as a step that can be compressed under scheduling pressure.
Role Boundaries Matter
One standard worth flagging for any attorney working with a forensic evaluator: a treating clinician and a forensic evaluator are expected to be separate roles, not combined in the same relationship with a family. An evaluator who has also provided therapy to a parent or child involved in the case creates a conflict that can undermine the evaluation's neutrality and its standing in court. When retaining or opposing an evaluator, it's reasonable to ask directly whether any dual-role relationship exists.
A Closing Thought
Custody litigation asks a great deal of families at an already difficult time, and it asks a great deal of the professionals involved to get it right — carefully, honestly, and with real regard for the people whose lives the outcome will shape. That combination of rigor and genuine care is what I try to bring to every evaluation, and it's the standard I'd encourage any attorney to look for when selecting an evaluator for a case.
If you have questions about the evaluation process for a current or upcoming case, I'm glad to discuss it. [Contact / Schedule a Call]
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