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.

Of course the child is the first consideration but that doesn't negate how other people should be treated. The legal and court system can be a rough old trot and it's hard when you think that someone has written something wrong about you and it's going to stay on your record forever. He should be concerned if he believes that inaccurate details have be written about him, and it's troubling that it's so slapdash that they couldn't even get his name and dob right.

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

Is it realistic if he challenges the report now, that that would increase? It's going to be expensive and stressful, with no guarantee of success.

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.

As I have said, I'd be very uncomfortable to have a report forever connected to my name that I believed to contain inaccurate information that could be later used against me. I can't help think that everyone would want to challenge that. It's not going to affect the court case now so he'd be challenging it for his own peace of mind. I don't know how he'd go about doing that so I'd start getting advice from a variety of sources. Eg, social services, solicitor, CAB, even online forums (don't get caught up in all their angst, though).

@Gracewithoutend I appreciate your understanding. I was slightly afraid to post on here as many usually think that because the psychologist was a professional then what I am saying happened can't be true.

He wishes now that he had challenged it in court but he wanted to put his son first. Having supervised contact would have seriously damaged his child as he would have basically lost all relationships with his grandparent and step siblings. But it does still annoy him when he thinks about it.

He would never return to court as he has been criticised for doing so during the last case. The whole process is so awful and no one listens to anything, they just think parents are being malicious for the fun of it. I know some people are like that but all shouldn't be tarred with the same brush.

He cant challenge it now, the proceedings have ended, that was the right and proper place to do that.

The psychologist is commissioned and instructed (and paid) by the proceedings, he isnt going to sit down and go through things that this person thinks should be different. He has done his work.

So it can't even be challenged via the HCPC?

Also is it right that the psychologist let the other person do a psychological test twice? First time apparently came back flat as 'highly defensive answers' so they were given another chance to do it which gave a different result. So the other person obviously changed their answers to manipulate the test - or so it seems.

If you consider that the psychologist has acted unethically or unprofessionally then your friend can raise a concern via their professional body , which Is the HCPC for practitioner psychologists. Worth checking on the register to see if they are registered there. However it will be important to have evidence to support the complaint

Firstly the practitioner may not be registered with them

Secondly, the correct mechanism for challenging information within an assessment commissioned by the court is within those proceedings.

We often get complaints about this and that for things that happened or were said during proceedings, the answer is that we cannot look into that as the person was represented during the proceedings and it should have been raised then.

If you were a private client/NHS patient of someone and were seeing them, you can raise that at any point or make a complaint about them, but this is a different scenario, he had the chance to raise issues with it during the proceedings and chose not to.

If he wants to take it up with anyone, he needs to challenge his solicitor on the legal advice he was given. Bearing in mind of course that his solicitor works on his instruction.

@KentuckyFriedChicken83
I have worked investigating cases and steering them through the court system. I'm not a lawyer in any form but I had greater legal knowledge in the area I was involved in that they did. In my experience solicitorsate focussed on the legal technicalities, which are simultaneously necessary to get the best possible outcome, but at the same time can overlook the human element of clients wanting their truth to be told. It can be frustrating for both parties. And honestly, I've had both good solicitors and bloody awful ones. Court can be a bit of a crap shoot.

As I've previously said, once he's allowed the report to be entered into evidence unchallenged, I really don't know how much he can do. If it's being held by SS and he thinks it will get used against him again, then maybe that's what he needs to challenge. Or alternatively look at the criticisms he's received in the report and find ways he can demonstrate that they are not true now, regardless if whether he agrees they were true in the past. Start a little dossier if you like in case there is problem in the future.

But don't let this become an obsession to eat away at him and ruin his life. Certainly doing something practical can help him vent his worry, but in the first instance take some time away from the court case,which will have been his sole focus for so long. Sometimes with distance you can get a bit more proportionality and perspective.

@bellac11 That is what I thought too. The psychologist is registered but it said that court ordered reports can't be complained about or the content changed.

I agree that it should have been raised in court but it was a difficult decision to make.

I guess he has to just accept that this is against his name forever. Makes him sound like an awful abuser which is not at all true.

Who is this person to you ?
could it be that you don’t know them that well and maybe wanting to believe what you are being told? A person with NPD for example will be like gods gift to outsiders perfect dad perfect partner you will only see the real him once it’s too late but a professional may see through him. On the other hand though if he’s been a victim of abuse he may also present badly to the assessor through years of trauma and feeling attacked and not heard.

I think as someone else has said, he's going to have to let it go but learn a lesson from it that if you have incorrect information written about you (in your view) you need to provide evidence and/or a challenge to correct it.

I suppose I can say now. It's my husband of 9 years so I have witnessed everything. Raised my step son since he was 1 and seen everything that has happened with court cases, how both parents have behaved etc.

I didn't want to mention it at the start of the thread as I wanted objective opinions as it would have been automatically assumed I was defending him solely on the basis of him being my husband. I would be the first to call him out if he was being an idiot.

I would say that the second one is correct. He is angry at what he has gone through and he has trouble letting that go. He's the type that if he believes something is wrong, such as how a child is being treated, he will speak up.

I just couldn't imagine NOT challenging this at the time.
Advice saying, if you challenge it, you'll be seen as difficult and lose more time with your son - this doesn't even make sense. Of course you'd challenge it if it was wrong. That doesn't make you "difficult". He accepted and therefore AGREED with the report given.

I agree it doesn't make sense but that is what he was advised by the solicitor and barrister. He had to make the decision whether to stick to his principles and defend himself or whether to make sure he saw his son again. It felt a little like coercion if I am honest - you must agree with said report otherwise you will lose your son.

The family court is so messed up.

I'm afraid this is all part and parcel of the train wreck of the family courts. About 12 - 15 years ago there was a national report criticising these psychological reports as disasters. I had one done on me, notionally by a psychologist, but actually by a student he farmed it out to (he did 80 reports a year on top of a full time job and consulting work). The student was in her first few weeks of a Masters programme and was struggling with it. They didn't even manage to record my answers correctly and had multiple relevant errors of fact. They extrapolated these to blaming me for the DV instead of drug-addict, alcoholic ex. Yes, there are some women who move from one violent relationship to another but I'd never been in a violent relationship before that (was then in my 40s) and haven't been since. It was crazy.

I tried to challenge it but the family court wouldn't listen. It's possible the solicitors are saying don't challenge it because they know she'd be hitting her head against a brick wall.

That's horrifying :( I'm so sorry OP and PP. I had no idea it was like that.
It just feels like instinct to challenge it, but I haven't been there and obviously if you have everyone telling you otherwise.

@Igmum I'm so sorry you also experienced this. I think people tend to think that because they are psychologists then they must be right and what they say is gospel. I've studied psychology and a lot of it is guesswork if I'm honest. It's not based on fact. One psychologist can reach a completely different conclusion to another.

That could have very well be the reason why the solicitor said not to challenge it. They got the right outcome for my husband but it's appalling the knots you have to twist yourself in and the things you have to be accused of with the threat of losing contact. What didn't the court listen to in your case? I know you can't say too much but in general?

They got the right outcome for your husband. That’s it. Isn’t it. I would leave everything else alone. Barristers do things for a reason. The reason being, you got whet you wanted. Do not go back to court if you can possibly avoid it. Then surely the report is not read again or is superseded.

Oh definitely wouldn't go back to court. In a way, it was the right outcome compared to suggested supervised but my husband initially went to court to get residency for a variety of safeguarding reasons.