If parents have a dispute, or potential dispute, about child custody or parenting time, the Early Neutral Evaluation (ENE) is a great option with a high success rate.
The ENE model works as follows: the parties meet with a team of two evaluators, one man and one woman, who hear from each parent about the facts of the case. The evaluators have training and experience that allows them to provide feedback about the circumstances of the case and what would be a likely outcome if the case were to be subjected to a full custody or parenting time evaluation.
The evaluators can then attempt to facilitate agreement of the parents on a parenting plan that is suitable for the child(ren) involved, and also recommend other services of guidelines, such as parenting time supervisors, anger management resources or child therapists. If the parents do not reach agreement, the case will proceed to evaluation, trial, mediation. But even in such event of the matter not being resolved in ENE, it provides the parents with a better understanding of how the dispute will play out, and what the basis is for the other parent's disagreement.
It is an informal process, in which the parents are not "testifying" and are not under oath. So the evaluators' observations are only as good as the facts they get from the parents. In most cases, the evaluators get an accurate enough understanding of the circumstances to make helpful observations and recommendations. The process bears out the fact that many 90-day, full-blown custody evaluations reach the same conclusions that ENE evaluators reach during a three-hour session.
If one parent calls the other parent an alcoholic, an abuser, or insists that the other parent is mentally ill, and the other parent denies it, the evaluators have to make their recommendations notwithstanding the disconnect between the parents' presentations of the circumstances. But in ENE, as in custody cases generally, the fact that there is contention about alcohol, abuse or mental illness means the issue needs to be addressed regardless of whether one parent is alcoholic, abusive or mentally ill.
If ENE is successful, the parties sign off on a parenting plan based upon the terms reached during the ENE session(s), and it is not necessary to proceed with a contested custody or parenting time dispute.
what if one don’t have an attorney and says he/she doesn’t feel comfortable having the other person’s attorney there during the evaluation, can the attorney requested to leave?