ENABLING CHILDREN OF DIVORCE TO WIN

Divorce mediators, attorneys, judges, and psychologists approach the issues in marriage dissolution from disparate vantage points. Legal niceties, actuarial acrobatics, and egosaving mechanisms tend to dominate the proceedings. Too often, however, some of the professionals have neither the training nor the experience to recognize the potential impact of such decisions on the children of divorce. The children rarely have an advocate whose sole task it is to make certain that their "best interests" are truly served. Questions are raised and suggestions for research are offered in an effort to reduce children's victimization and enable them to emerge as winners.     

RECONCILING PARENTS' AND CHILDREN'S INTERESTS IN RELOCATION In Whose Best Interest?

When a family comes before the court, whose interests are really served? Can the court's representatives act in the best interests of the children while respecting the rights of parents? When a case is sent to a court‐connected evaluator, how does the evaluator balance the tensions and varying perspectives inherent in this work? Within the bounds of advocacy and legal ethics, how does the attorney balance the demands and rights of the client while guiding the parent to consider the needs of the children? How do judges frame the dilemmas before them and consider the work of the evaluator? This article addresses these questions in a multidisciplinary fashion, using a hypothetical case as a guide.     

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