High conflict i$ high dollar.
High-Conflict i$ High Dollar
How much is your families safety worth?
Let’s confront a troubling reality that exists in our family courts today. The systems designed to protect our children and ensure their well-being are fundamentally flawed, and can be driven by monetary incentives.
Each PRE custody evaluation can cost an astonishing $10,000 per child. This is absurd. So, if one parent then requests a PRE evaluation, the other then, is forced to pay too. Abusers are often times asking for these evaluations. Incredibly, there is no limit on the number of cases that an evaluator can undergo for any given period, which means financial motivations can, and often do, overshadow the principles of the best interests of the child standard that is supposed to be at the forfront of the reasoning for ordering an evaluation in the first place. The need for clear guidelines and accountability for the evaluators and for the Colorado Court system that is governing this PRE program is paramount.
When financial stakes are this high and incentives are misaligned, we risk commodifying the welfare of our children. The focus shifts from what is best for the child to what benefits the evaluators, lawyers, and the system itself.
This is not just an economic issue; it is a moral imperative. The question becomes: what kind of future are we creating when the safety and basic care of our children can be is determined by a dollar amount? This is not truly valuing the sanctity of family, the importance of stability and safety, and the "Best Interests of the Child Standard" that the judicial system references, but very often fails to uphold.
Transparency is the key
We must demand accountability and transparency in these evaluation processes. We must advocate for a system that truly prioritizes the best interests of the child above all else. When we challenge these structures, we question the status quo, and ensure that our children and future generations are not pawns in a game driven by financial gain.
Ultimately, we are determining the outcomes of these children's lives. For the courts and evaluators, this may be just another case and another paycheck, but for the families fighting to protect their children or themselves, this will set the course for their future.
If the judicial system was upholding a theory where the welfare of our children is paramount, we would be able to invest in their futures, not just financially, but morally and ethically.
How to get a favorable outcome?
What can you do if you’re facing a dreaded court ordered custody evaluation?
You can keep the evaluator on their toes and accountable! They are more likely to adhere to the guidelines that are set for them and you will increase the odds of your own favorable outcome.
When parents are informed, the guidelines become more crucial for evaluators to follow, and they are more likely to be held to a higher standard or therfore risk the consequences. Learning your rights isn’t just about protecting yourself and your children, it also makes the system more accountable - which benefits everyone.
Colorado's Rocky Family Courts
you're the best advocate for your child
Navigating the world of custody evaluations and understanding Colorado family law is a maze of challenges. When you search for information and resources online to protect your child, you often encounter the same advice: Call a lawyer. Ask your attorney. Don't even try to understand; your lawyer will do all the thinking for you. But will they? Can they make better decisions for your family than you can? Do they know the details better than you do? Sure, they know the laws, but they can't possibly make those decisions better than you yourself can. Yet, everything online seems to point to that conclusion. Quite frankly, if you asked your lawyer every question that the internet says you should, you'd never make it to the hearing. You'd be flat broke.
The truth is, you don't need to ask your lawyer every single question. But you can try. Good luck getting any answers. These lawyers, taking on too many caseloads, treat you like just another number. They expect you to take their word for it simply because they say so. They seem to forget it doesn't take a college degree to Google. All you need is internet access. You can learn the laws without a formal education. At Colorado Custody Evaluator Reviews, we want you to have the information you need to take part in the decisions being made for your family. We believe that parents know what's best for their children more than the courts ever could. And when it comes to high-conflict custody battles, it's more important than ever for parents to know and understand their rights so they can make informed decisions.
We are not saying you shouldn't get a lawyer, but your lawyer should also be held accountable. Very often, they make unilateral decisions and never explain that there were other choices besides the scenario they pursue. If you are not wealthy, and a lawyer knows this, the legal advice you get will be tailored to that. It does not matter if your child is in a dangerous situation, if you are in a dangerous situation, if there is abuse or not. They will not pursue methods of holding an abuser accountable simply based on the fact that filing for contempt, for instance, would cost money that you likely don't have. Now, not all lawyers are like this, but I think it's safe to say that far too many of them look at you and your family as a paycheck that is only getting smaller with each passing day.
Quite frankly, these kinds of lawyers should not be in family law. They should not be in high-conflict custody. But they are, and when you hire one thinking that now your legal rights will be prioritized and advocated for, and you wind up no better off - but now tens of thousands of dollars in debt instead, it becomes painfully clear that this family law system needs major reform. From the lawyers to the evaluators, and the judges themselves, we make a lot of excuses for this, giving them far too much leeway and not holding them accountable nearly enough.
And how do you even do that? Well, that's what we are trying to do here: give you back some of your ability to advocate for your child. You have to know the rules if you are going to play this game. And it may not feel like a game to you, but it does to an abuser, and it does to so many others in the family law system. Sometimes it may even help to think of it that way because the reality of what could happen, what might happen, what will happen, or what has happened is so overwhelming, it will make even the strongest, most resilient parent crumble. But for our children, we get back up, brush ourselves off, and throw ourselves right back into the game. Right in the line of fire, we pay money that we likely don't have in the first place to put ourselves right in front of the one person we thought we might finally have gotten space from, our ex. But instead of space, we find a new monster has emerged from what we thought couldn't have been a more difficult situation, and we were dead wrong. If that's how they were going to treat us when they loved us, we couldn't hope for much now that they hate us. But now we have to navigate this dynamic, and we do it for our children.
The law and its complexities can be learned, and some mistakes can be easily avoided if you know what you're looking for. When it comes to custody evaluations in Colorado, there are some big problems. Google custody evaluators in Colorado and see what comes up. And it's not just Colorado; it's throughout the country. It's time for us to see the reality of the system we've allowed to continue on and become victims to, time and time again.
Yet, here’s the hard truth: Colorado’s not alone in facing a wave of biased and, frankly, corrupt evaluations. It’s a nationwide issue that’s been in the shadows for too long. These evaluators, often with their own practices and very little oversight, have more power in their hands than you’d expect. The courts set the stage, but these folks direct the play, and not everyone’s playing by the rules. By reading and writing reviews of these custody evaluators, we begin to perpetuate a cycle of accountability.
By publicly sharing our experiences with these evaluations, we begin to reveal the problems not only with the evaluators themselves but with the legalities of these evaluations. If the courts are going to evaluate our families, we should be able to scrutinize their evaluations. The freedom of speech is crucial, and without it, improper methods, problematic evaluators, and other errors cannot be seen and will result in thousands of children being further abused through the system after already enduring so much. This platform is meant for the people, to hold the government and its entitis to the standard that the court set for them, for us to be able to recognize it when it's being followed according to their guidelines, or not. That way, the best interest of the child can truly be heard and ordered upon, and you as a parent can be the number one advocate that your child needs you to be.
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