If you have come far enough in the court process to have had an evaluator finish and publish a report, you know that you are getting near the end and that if this doesn’t go well, you will end up having to live with the consequences a very long time. But what can you do about a report that you believe is biased, or that missed the mark on several key issues?

The time to object to the evaluators report is during the 20 days immediately following the release of the report. At this point you can make objections to the report and setup your meeting with the other parent and the evaluator. There isn’t likely to be a change at this point because the evaluator and other parent agree. But this is a critical objection to make because this is the due diligence portion of your argument.

But your options don’t end here. You can file a motion asking for a second evaluation based on the report being technically incorrect or factoring in biased information. But you need to make sure that your assertions are correct. If they are not you will end up with being double billed for the same result.

Once you decide your unhappy with the report you need to immediately start work on the packet you are going to submit to the new evaluator. Make sure that you understood what went wrong. If you can’t figure it out then you are destined to make the same mistake again.

If you did not like the report you now need to understand why the report was written the way it was. Do some detective work and understand what criteria evaluators use and why they interpreted the information the way they did. Remember that the definition of crazy is doing the same thing the same way and expecting different results.

Once you understand the evaluators criteria, you should be able to provide data to them that will substantiate your claim or at least make the best of the situation. You are not likely to get the opportunity to have a second evaluation more than once. So do your homework and make the best possible use of the tools at your disposal. Remember that time is your ally.