What does the guardianship and custody counter-expertise consist of?

In the field of expert psychology, psychologists are acquiring more and more prominence in judicial processes, helping to clarify and explain any kind of behavioral pattern or internal psychological process that may be essential for clarify the facts that are being judged.

One of the areas where the performance of a forensic psychologist is of great importance is in guard and custody processes, in which reports are made expert opinions to prove the capacity or inability to educate, care for and raise children presented by the parents who will or will not be granted custody of the children. little ones.

To successfully carry out their task in this type of process, forensic psychologists have a fundamental resource when it comes to providing relevant information to trials: the counter-expert reports and the evaluative analysis of an expert report.

• Related article: "How do I prove that I am fit to have custody of my children?"

What is an expert report?

The expert report is one of the essential tools in the field of forensic psychology

, since it allows us to provide information used to enrich the framework from which the behavior of a mother or father is interpreted in a trial.

More specifically, the expert reports are scientific and impartial documents prepared by expert psychology professionals who are experts in the subject being dealt with, in which expose the conclusions of a series of inquiries focused on the psychological characteristics of a person, information that can help the judge to make a decision in one direction or other.

The expert report itself is not a document used to argue how a judicial process should be resolved, it only provides data focusing on part of the aspects to be taken into account. In other words, the psychologists in charge of carrying out these tasks do not act in favor of the person who hires them or adopt a role similar to that of a lawyer.

This type of professional assessment is carried out by the psychosocial team of the court in question or by a private expert hired by one of the two parents who are in the middle of the process judicial. These experts should always have training in Psychology.

In any of the cases, all the conclusions, tests, test results, reports and affirmations that are included in it must be correctly argued and made based on the scientific method.

In the event that an expert report contains flagrant flaws, methodological deficiencies or conclusions incorrectly argued, a counter-expert opinion is usually carried out by the aggrieved parent.

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What is the counter-expertise of guardianship and custody?

A cross-examination is the tool available to forensic psychologists to objectively evaluate the content of a report expert opinion previously prepared, and in the event that it contains rulings of any kind, provide all the necessary evidence to the judge of the case.

The objective is not to totally refute everything that another expert has said in his report (although it is something that can happen), but nuance aspects of its content and provide relevant information that helps to understand the limitations of this study and to to have a realistic and detailed picture of the extent of what can be deduced from what is observed.

In judicial proceedings on guardianship and custody of children, this type of investigation helps to provide important information to have a global and clear vision of the parental competencies of a person, preventing the fact that only one of the parties has provided an expert document from leading to a biased decision in the resolution of the case.

There are many reasons why a cross-examination is usually carried out on an expert report, however, The elements that are taken into special consideration are the following:

• Review how the evaluation has been carried out.
• Make observations about the inference process that has been carried out to go from facts to conclusions.
• Comment on the validity of the interviews or whether they are necessary to reach the conclusions contained in the report.
• Make a constructive criticism of the methodological aspects.
• Make observations on the causal or non-causal link of facts that appear in the expert report.

• Related article: "Forensic Psychology: definition and functions of the forensic psychologist"

Counter-expertise and evaluative analysis of an expert report

Carrying out a counter-expert report is one of the most effective strategies to evaluate the validity of an expert report, however, Many times it is also necessary to carry out an additional evaluative analysis of the expert report..

Both reports may be similar, but they contain notable differences that must be well understood in any custody process.

While the counter-expertise usually focuses on the more technical and formal aspects of a psychological expert report previously elaborated, the evaluative analysis is usually a report that provides more precise and detailed information that helps the judge to make his decision. Rather than detecting and highlighting possible flaws or limitations in a report, helps to have a clear vision of what is exposed, focusing more on the content than on the formal aspects and making sure that their most important ideas are clear. important (and also the issues that remain unclear from the information available to date) moment).

The main elements taken into account in an evaluative analysis elaborated by professionals of expert psychology are:

• The limitations that a specific statement in the expert report may have.

• Provide arguments that help a judge to correctly understand and interpret the technical terms used in the expert report.

• Make it clear which aspects are subjective interpretations and which are objective conclusions.

• Clarify certain conclusions.

• Highlight ideas that have been discussed in the original report, and that perhaps have not been emphasized, since they are sometimes key to granting or removing custody from a parent.

• Highlight the most important data for the interests of the people involved in the forensic procedure, even if they are not contradictions or negative aspects.

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Are you looking for expert psychology services?

If you want to have expert psychology services before legal proceedings, get in touch with our team.

In Azor & Associates We have a lot of experience in preparing counter-reports and expert reports on issues such as imputability, parental competence, the evaluation of disabilities and/or sequelae, and more.