When it comes to Child Dependency cases money can buy you one thing – Experts. Typically in any kind of case where children are involved there are a lot of different parties all with their own goals and motivations. You can typically have the Mom, the Dad, grandparents, DCFS, social workers, the children, the children’s attorneys, and yes… experts. While every one of these parties plays a special role in a case, it’s the expert who is brought in as a 3rd party observer providing their outside view onto the situation. This of course might be tempered or directed based on who is hiring them. Still, their thoughts and counsel can hold a lot of sway in a courtroom.
An example recently in the news is the Marc Anthony child support case. The mother of the child is now asking for more money in monthly child support. Marc Anthony is against this claiming it would spoil the children (though there’s a good chance that’s already taken place). In cases like this there is usually a lot of back and forth discussion between the parent’s lawyers arguing for and against changing the child support payments. Anyone impartial will watch all this – though not in the courtroom since that’s closed to the public – and be unclear on which way to decide. The Mom wants more money for a live-in cook and nanny. She might make the argument that it lets her spend more time with the kids. Marc Anthony will say they already have enough and can go to a restaurant like everyone else does. Both sides have their pros and cons. So the question is how to break that tie? If you have the means you don’t want to leave it up to the judge to decide. In family courtrooms you really can never be sure which way they will rule.
So one side will pony up the $10,000 or so to bring in an expert to provide their own “unbiased” opinion. Rest assured for $10,000 you can find some “expert” out there somewhere who will say just about anything you want. For every psychologist who thinks it’s ludicrous to have a live in cook, there are probably an equal number who would say it would actually strengthen the parent child relationship. And yes for that much money they will say it under oath (and they may actually believe it).
The key here is realizing that experts can have an important place in the courtroom. They can seem outside the fray and bickering, and bring some logical discourse and thought to a disagreement. The question is, who can afford one. Celebrities and those making enough money can write a check for $10,00 without thinking about it. For the rest of society however hiring an expert is out of their financial reach. So hopefully one day a group of experts will band together and each give up 2 hours or so a week dedicating themselves to providing their services for free towards child dependency law. In fact this should be put together by the courts themselves as a way to bring in a 3rd party observer who truly has not vested interest in the case.
As one caveat – we’ve heard of cases where someone has hired an expert, and the expert has come up with a conclusion that works against their own client. The client then will chose not to use that expert to testify. This gives us hope that the system would work IF the court puts it together, rather than the clients themselves. We want opinions that are based on years of experience, are within reach of the general public, and dare I say it, speak the truth.
Family Law Court 