Best practices: New Texas law mandates audiovisual recordings of child custody interviews

Abstract

Lawyers who handle cases involving custody disputes should be aware of a new law that impacts how child custody evaluations are to be conducted. Currently, Texas Family Code Section 107 establishes certain criteria in order for individuals to be considered qualified to be court appointed to conduct a child custody evaluation. Those criteria include obtaining a certain level and type of education, followed by two years of full-time, or a comparable amount of part-time experience, and “two years of full-time experience or equivalent supervised part-time work involving the evaluation of physical, intellectual, social, and psychological functioning and needs and developed an understanding of the social and physical environment, both present and prospective, to meet those needs.” Effective Sept. 1, 2023, HB 4062 mandates that child custody evaluators must create an audiovisual recording of any interviews of children. This mandate, even if waived by agreement of counsel, child custody evaluators and parties, creates new bait for cross-examination in child custody disputes. (from Introduction)