Social worker's testimony

[buka]

Does anyone know how heavily the opinion/diagnosis of a licensed social worker weighs in court? The issue is visitation. The social worker is concerned that child is being emotionally/developmentally damaged by conditions during visits with NCP. If she were to propose restricting visitation to a judge, is judge likely to agree?

 

[ktarra617]

I know here in texas that the courts to weigh the opinion of social workers very carefully and listen to everything they say. I would ask your lawyer but I would think the courts would listen very carefully since this is a person outside the situation.

 

[jeanine]

Most judges want a child to see both parents, so he or she may take what the therapist says into consideration and order supervised visitation for a period of time. I doubt they would take away all visitation since statistics show that children do better in life when they have a relationship with both parents. I'd put money on an order of supervised visitation.

 

[Grandma B]

Agree with Jeanine. Judges definitely rely on reports of professionals, but supervised visitation would be the likely result.

 

[buka]

Thanks for all of your replies. I don't think the social worker will recommend eliminating visitation, just restricting it further. But since supervised visitation sounds like a possibility, can anyone tell me how that works with a 10-year-old? I imagine it's fairly easy to have supervised visits with small children, but it must work differently as kids get older and more active.

 

[jeanine]

You may have to have visits with the social worker present or with someone from the CP's family present. It all depends on the social worker's reasons for thinking the child is being harmed emotionally.