Shrinks like lawyers

I am hunting for a child custody evaluator again, and I found one about 50 miles away who was interested and available. The first thing she asked was for the names of the lawyers in the case. When I told her that my ex-wife and I are not represented by lawyers, I got this response:

Unfortunately, I do not do custody evaluations on clients that are not represented. I can give you some referrals of other evaluators if you would like.

Best of luck to you both.

The odd thing about this is that the lawyers are not permitted to have any contact with the evaluators. The evaluators are supposed to be basing their opinions on psychological evaluations of the parents and kids, and not on legalistic arguments from lawyers.

She is not the only one who likes lawyers. There are other forensic child custody evaluators who also insist on the parents using lawyers. As I understand it, these folks are always worried about being sued, or about getting their professional licenses challenged. They operate on the boundaries of what is legal and ethical. When lawyers are handling the paperwork for an evaluation, the evaluator feels that she is more sheltered from liability problems. That is my understanding, anyway.