Explores the advantages and disadvantages of child custody arrangements, including joint custody, sole custody, and bird's nest custody.

Joint custody. Same?sex custody. Young children with the mother. Which is the best arrangement? Unfortunately, for those who seek a trustworthy solution, research has proven that there is no single best arrangement for all children. This timely volume, however, does offer a practical and realisic methodology with which to confront the challenging and often confusing issues facing the custody evaluator. THe only book of its kind, The Custody Evaluation Handbook offers a strikingly helpful model for evaluating and assigning weight to the mountains of disparate information accumulated during a custody suit. Written by an unparalleled expert in the field of custody evaluation, the book eschews what the author calls the negative incident model in which each parent responds to the custody process by compiling a long list of grievances against the hated opponent. It advocates, instead a test?based approach that measures how successful each parent actually is at the job of parenting. The book describes numerous tests and tools for eliciting reliable information from both children and parents. With an eye to learning the actual impact a parent has on a child rather than what a given parent may or may not be doing, the book emphasizes obtaining measurements from the involved child. Parent tests are designed to reflect the effectiveness with which a parent responds to typical childcare situations, and the degree to which a parent truly knows ? and can satisfy the needs of ? a particular child. The volume also sets forth concepts derived from extensive research that are particularly helpful in understanding parent?child interactions, and provides a specific system of nonadversary communication strategies that can be used and modeled in all interchanges with evaluation participants, and in the wording of all written reports. Readers will also welcome the numerous suggestions from evaluators all over the country on specific custody dilemmas they have faced. The book is based on many years' meticulous research and is informed by a number of conceptual approaches that include: The proven premise that whatever certain parents intend to communicate is often not what their children are, in fact, perceiving and reacting to The Utilization Model of Milton E. Erikson The Thomas, Chess, and Birch goodness?of?fit model of parent?child interaction Bandler and Grinders' assertion that the meaning of a communication is the response it elicits, regardless of the intentions of the sender Clearly, spelling out the targets of a truly comprehensive and reliable evaluation, The Custody Evaluation Handbook will be an invaluable handbook for custody evaluators and marriage and family therapists, as well as other involved mental health professionals.

"It is almost always in your children's best interest to settle a case--with or without mediation--rather than to litigate in court," said Judge Stewart. His book fully, clearly, and concisely explains the process of court child custody litigation. It shows how custody decisions are made, what can be expected at each stage of the process, and how parents can insure that their abilities are clearly presented to persons with influence over the custody decision. It is intended to eliminate surprises that could lead to costly mistakes along the way. Parents who settle custody disputes out of court will not only save tens of thousands of dollars, but will have avoided the rancor and hostility of a custody trial that makes future cooperation in raising the children almost impossible. With help from a capable and experienced attorney, this book will allow the reader to present her/his case for custody in its best possible light. A must-read for divorcing parents, custody evaluators, family psychologists, and marriage and family therapists.

More Child Custody Topics Covered. More information on the Topics. The most current information available. Identify what the court would see as your problem behaviors and control them. Determine who you can talk to and what you can safely tell them. Panic Situations, what they really mean and see how other parents handled them. How to hire a great attorney, fire a bad one, and sue a dangerous one. When, why and how to keep a contact log book. How to negotiate successfully. Examples of Home Study, Psychological Evaluations and Detective Reports. When and how to depose someone to get the best results. Cost of fighting for custody or the cost of child support you can't control. More than 700 pages of the most valuable and current information available.

"A guide for school-based professionals"--cover.