As if to underscore the difficulty in forging consensus on who should have access to forensic evaluations reports in child custody matters, and under what conditions, the Office of Court Administration yesterday advanced three competing proposals and is seeking bar input on which to adopt.
The issue has raised serious privacy and due process concerns, resulting in, at best, an uneasy truce and, at worst, perpetual conflict and inconsistency as practitioners and judges struggle to balance the interests of litigants, the welfare of the children and the sanctity of the patient-psychologist relationship.
