In the field of expert psychology, psychologists are becoming increasingly more prominent in judicial processes, helping to clarify and explain any type of behavioral pattern or internal psychological process that may be essential to clarify the facts that are being judged
One of the areas where the performance of a forensic psychologist is of great importance is in guardianship and custody processes, in which expert reports are prepared to prove the capacity or inability to educate, care for and raise children that the parents present to the whether or not they will be granted custody of the children.
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: counter-expertise and evaluative analysis of 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, expert reports are scientific and impartial documents prepared by expert psychology professionals who are experts in the topic being discussed, in which the conclusions of a series of investigations focused on the psychological characteristics of a person are presented, information that It can help the judge make a decision one way or another.
The expert report itself is not a document used to argue how a judicial process should be resolved , only provides data focusing on part of the aspects to take into account. In other words, the psychologists in charge of carrying out these tasks do not act in favor of those who hire them nor do they adopt a role similar to that of a lawyer.
These types of professional evaluations are 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 judicial process. These experts must always have training in Psychology.
In any case, all conclusions, tests, test results, reports and statements included in it must be correctly argued and carried out based on the scientific method
In the event that an expert report contains flagrant flaws, methodological deficiencies or incorrectly argued conclusions, a counter-expert report is usually carried out by the aggrieved parent.
What is the guardianship and custody counter-examination?
A counter-examination is the tool available to forensic psychologists to objectively evaluate the content of a previously prepared expert report, and if it contains errors of any kind, provide all the necessary evidence to the judge in the case.
The objective is not to completely refute everything that another expert has said in his report (although this is something that can happen), but rather to clarify aspects of its content and provide relevant information that helps to understand the limitations of that study and to have a realistic and detailed image of the extent of what can be deduced from what is observed
In judicial processes regarding the guardianship and custody of children, this type of investigation helps to provide important information to have a global and clear vision of the parental powers of a person, preventing the fact that only one of the parties has contributed an expert document leads to a biased decision in the resolution of the case.
There are many reasons why a counter-examination is usually carried out on an expert report, however, The elements that are taken into special consideration are the following:
Counter-expertise and evaluative analysis of an expert report
Carrying out a counter-examination 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 previously prepared psychological expert report, the evaluative analysis is usually a report that provides more precise and detailed information that helps the judge make his decision. More than detecting and highlighting possible flaws or limitations of a report, helps to have a clear vision of what is exposed focusing more on content than formal aspects and making sure that your most important ideas are clear (and also the issues that remain unclear from the information available so far).
The main elements that are taken into account in an evaluative analysis prepared by expert psychology professionals are:
If you want to have expert psychology services in court proceedings, contact our team.
In Azor & Associates We have a lot of experience in preparing counter-reports and expert reports on topics such as imputability, parental competence, evaluation of disabilities and/or consequences, and more.
