| Not certain, but sounds like a Child Probation officer. In many
states/towns Child Probation officers do most/all such investigations,
I suspect thats what you have happening in this case.
They work for the court system and are utiilized by the judges to
investigate cases of this type. The other option a judge has is to
assign a "Guardian ad litum" (Childs advocate attorney) neither one of
these choices normally does a particularly thorough or good job of
investigation. the Child Probation officer is paid a court salary for
his services, and is usually loaded up with cases. The Guardian ad litum
gets to work for the court by getting their name on the judges list of
available Guardian ad Litums, and is not required to have any special
training for the job, but collects around $700.00 from the court/State
every time they do such an investigation. They will file a typed
report stating what each parent and other witnesses, if any, have had to
say about your case. After the investigation is complete, normally it
takes about 6 months for them to file this report with the court.
Once filed you have the right to view this document in your court folder,
but normally are not allowed to make a copy of it. You can however take
notes of what it contains if it was done by a Child Probation officer. If
it was prepared by a Guardian ad Litum, you will most likely be
provided with a copy of the document. Don't expect much from this
process, but make sure that you read it when it is finally filed so you
know what it contains.
If you disagree with the contents or find lies, misinformation etc.,
stated in the document you can file a written protest stating what the
offending information in the report is with the court, which is also
added to your court folder. This protest must be filed within so many
days of the filing of the investigators report. If you find really poor
facts in the document, your written protest tends to minimize the judges
reliance on the investigators report.
Hopefully in your case, they will do their usual poor job and leave the
custody arrangements as they are, their normal choice is to do nothing.
The other side of the coin, if they are foced to make an actual decision,
they normally seem to side with the mother, considering that to be safe
ground and status quo in the courts.
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