Many people believe it’s a good idea to send letters of reference to a judge in the belief that this will help their case and because these individuals believe it will keep them from having to appear in a trial or a hearing. This tactic does not work because the reference letters are viewed as inadmissible hearsay.
There are two ways that these letters can get in front of a judge and this article discusses the first one. In this method, you go through the social study investigator. When you do this, the substantive statements of support for or against a person can get in front of the judge without hitting the roadblock of being classified as inadmissible hearsay.
In his or her report that goes directly to the judge, the social study investigator may even use all or part of these letters. When you feel like letters of reference will help position you well for a custody matter, it can be a wise choice to use this individual to your advantage because he or she can play a really prominent role in your custody case.
Judges rely on social study investigators quite a bit. This practice ensures that an extra pair of eyes is looking over a case and making informed recommendations based on the facts, as well as reduces the amount of work an individual judge has to do. One of the most critical pieces of evidence in your contested custody case can be the child custody evaluation presented by a social study investigator.
The job of the social study investigator is to collect as much evidence as possible, sort through it, and use that evidence to craft a “report” which is then delivered to the judge. Although there are many scenarios in which the judge will strongly rely on the recommendation made by this person, many parents still underestimate the importance of this individual and suffer the consequences of not knowing this fact. The social study investigator is searching for all kinds of information, such as the strengths and weaknesses of each parent, parent-child relationships, children’s individual needs, and the level of conflict between two parents. In this capacity, the investigator provides a third-party, yet in-depth and objective perspective on the case.
You can use your reference letters by providing them as evidence to the social study investigator. Then, these are not inadmissible hearsay and there is a better chance that they will be included in the final report presented to the judge.