Court ordered psychological report

[KentuckyFriedChicken83]

Hi, I'm hoping someone may have been through something similar and able to offer some advice on how to handle this.

So there is a psychological report that has been completed (not on me) which was ordered during a court case for child arrangements. This report included so many inaccuracies and outright lies that the person it was about wanted to challenge it in court.

However, said person was advised by their legal team that if they did challenge it, it would likely result in them being reduced to supervised visits only with their child. Therefore, they felt they had no choice but to accept what had been written.

The court case has now been concluded but this report is so unethical and can be proven to be biased that the person is wondering if anything can be done about its content at this stage? Or is it too late now? This report is also on Children's Services records which is concerning due to its content.

Let me guess

your new boyfriend?

No not at all.

I work in this field, no solicitor worth their salt would advise not to challenge a report like this unless they can see the report is clearly accurate with regard to behaviours they have also witnessed, or that the person it is about has been obstructive/difficult at every stage and this would be the straw that broke the camel's back

I find it extremely difficult to believe a solicitor would have advised to leave it unchallenged. Who is giving you this information p, did you witness this happening?

Thank you. I don't understand then because the legal team were sent all the evidence showing that what was said was untrue but they still advised the person to not challenge it. They said that it would not change the overall content of the report and it would make the Judge think that the person was being difficult etc.

Yes I did witness it all but don't want to go into too many details due to it being outing etc.

The barrister involved also advised not to challenge it as he also felt it would end up in the person being relegated to supervised contact.

In my previous role I would see a lot of 'evidence' provided by people, that wasn't actually that at all..

I appreciate that but this was evidence, in that it refuted the claims made.

I was really just wondering if this issue can be challenged at this stage or if it's too late now

So why not present it or get a second report? Yes it's too late the proceedings have concluded

It was presented to the legal team along with all comments on why it was disagreed. Just to give a very minor example, the persons name and date of birth wasn't even correct so it could have been anyone's profile. That's just one of many issues though.

A second assessment was not allowed as permission is needed from the court.

The only circumstance I can think of is something along the lines of a parent, lets say a father, having had sexual allegations/DV allegatiopns made against him, which he denies.

Perhaps threshold in the case agreed that there was a specific risk about these couple of things and then which father said that he would get help for but didnt accept them fully

By continuing to deny that these factors were evident in his behaviour, he is more of a risk to the children, perhaps leading to more supervision with him and his children, so to challenge particular bits would show him as someone who doesnt accept the allegations and therefore is higher risk because he is not likely to engage in support services if he is just paying lip service/disguised compliance.

Regards presenting the evidence to court, solicitor advised against it. It seemed they wanted the person to accept all responsibility for everything which is what this person ended up doing for his child's sake.

Barristers and solicitors go into court aiming for the best outcome for their client. Given that they both said not to challenge the report, I'd suggest that the evidence that refuted it wasn't strong, and/or that the bits that weren't refuted were pretty significant by themselves.

@bellac11 Thank you. There was no sexual assault allegations or DV involved against the person. The recommendation for supervised contact was based on very superficial reasons.

I think it just irritates said person because this report will always be there now and courts put so much weight on them when ultimately these reports are opinion based only.

Would you be able to elaborate a bit more? They said they could go in arguing it but it could have a negative impact on the contact.

Is this private family law or were social services involved?

Supervised contact is not ordered for superficial reasons!

When the reports are filed with court, usually position statements will set out a response to the evidence. What was this persons position statement about?

@bellac11 The position statement was drafted by the solicitor and she went along the lines of accepting their part in the high conflict between parents which is fair enough. No mention was made of the report.

Social were involved in the sense of child going on a child in need plan due to a variety of reasons but it was private law proceedings.

Supervised contact wasn't ordered but it was recommended. It was for superficial reasons with very little evidence to back it up but it's hard to explain without going into detail, which I don't think I'm allowed to do with court cases. It's difficult to explain.

I think I might be able to say this - so the psychological profile returned a result as this person having "severe explosive outbursts". There is zero evidence of such, no police records, no records of any kind and even the ex stating that this person was not abusive.

It is concerning that psychologists can just write this stuff with nothing to back it up though and I think that's what really gets to this person.

Perhaps in the psychological assessment your 'friend' disclosed behaviours which they then worried would show them in a bad light and want to deny

If this were me, and it was so inaccurate to the degree my name was wrong on it and as you imply, perhaps this is someone elses report, I would not go down quietly, threat or no threat of how contact might be

Court records need to be accurate, if his legal team genuinely, genuinely advised him in the way you say they did, then it will be because of other evidence which shows that by denying he has explosive outbursts, he is more of a risk than if he accepts he behaves like that

Refuting a claim made doesn’t prove something isnt true. He would have to provide absolute proof that it wasn’t true.
Surely a psychological report about a person involves meeting with the person the report is about? If so, why would there be lies in it?

What was the outcome, though? Did he get visitation as requested? Or did he end up in exactly the same position his solicitor and barrister had said he'd be in if he'd challenged the report? I guess I'd compare the outcome of the case vs the advice I was given.
Once he's agreed in court that the report was true, it would be difficult to get that changed but I definitely wouldn't like inaccurate information to be held by social services. But reports are often based on opinion rather than fact, and of course opinion can always be biased.

It is concerning that psychologists can just write this stuff with nothing to back it up though and I think that's what really gets to this person

Frankly my sympathy is with the child not this parent. Kids don't go on CIN for the lols.

@bellac11 Thank you, that makes sense. I can confirm that no behaviours in relation to angry outbursts were demonstrated in the assessment. The person was angry at everything that had happened (so much history of abuse from the other side etc) and had suffered a hugely traumatic event prior to the assessment (family death) so was generally angry about life in general. But I personally would have thought that a psychologist would realise that is a normal human emotion after such trauma.

The person wanted to challenge it with every bone in their body but on the other hand, they were being told they would lose contact with their child if they did so felt like they were stuck between a rock and a hard place.

@Soontobe60 Yes the person was met with an assessed. About 3 hours I think in total. I have no idea why the report was written how it was, it is concerning. Important evidence was also left out in relation to the other side.

The person's visitation with the child stayed the same, which probably works out about 30% ish.

I agree that reports are based on opinion but I would have hoped that psychologists would back up said opinon with something. It can have damaging consequences for people.

The child went on a CIN plan based upon what was happening in his home with the mother. Child was then kept on the plan based upon the court case. It has been closed now.