Legal Question in Family Law in Virginia

Court Ordered Custody/Visitation Evaluation

My husband has been fighting to be a part of his 10 yr old daughter's life. He didn't even know he had a daughter until she was 8 yrs old.

He has been ordered to complete a visitation evaluation by a clinical psychologist. We were flabergasted(sp) when we learned of the flat rate fee required by the psychologist of $3500. The court order doesn't specify who pays what, so we are assuming that we pay 50%. But we can't even afford the $1750 for our portion. We are currently pro se. We want to hire a lawyer, but know we can't afford it now. We do not qualify for pro bono services through legal aid; and so far haven't had any luck finding a lawyer willing to represent us pro bono, reduced rates, or even w/ a payment plan.

What can we do? I was told that we could petition the courts for a deferrment of the costs. I have been searching through the VA. State Codes for a statute to reference for this type of petition, and can't find one. Is there one available? Or can I just petition the courts for the deferrment of the costs w/out quoting a statute?


Asked on 5/23/01, 7:22 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys

Glenn R. Tankersley Regency Legal Clinic

Re: Court Ordered Custody/Visitation Evaluation

You may be assuming a lot when you assume you only have to pay half.

Petition the court for a re-hearing and ask that you at least be able to shop around for a psychologist who is affordable. Most judges would sympathize with that.

When you petition the court for anything, since pleadings in Virginia follow the Federal model and are general in nature (that means you don't have to cite the statute), the judge should know the statute, if it exists.

And now for the advice you DIDN'T want to hear: grit your teeth and pony up the money to hire a lawyer.

The reason most lawyers won't take a case like this even on a payment plan is that every one of us has been stiffed for a fee, after putting in too many hours to count, at least once in his life. I wouldn't hire a lawyer to protect MY interests if he weren't smart enough to protect his own.

You might try hiring a lawyer who just got out of law school and opened his practice. Some of them can be quite good and just have to research the law on the particular subject matter as they go along in the case. Not the best of alternatives, but better than nothing by a long shot.

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Answered on 6/23/01, 7:31 pm


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