Deposing Children in Child Custody Case
Should a parent ask the divorce attorney to depose the children in a child custody case?
The issue distills down to a question of who will decide that testifying is in a particular child’s best interest. Should it be the attorney (whom may have all good intentions) but still represents the interests of one litigant? Should it be a judge who knows nothing about the child but what he or she is told by the warring litigants? Should it be the child him/herself whom may lack the capacity to foresee the fall out in personal relationships that shall occur following the court appearance?
When I hear a person say that they are putting a child in the middle of a dispute I always recall the quote of retired General Colin Powell who once advised “Avoid having your ego so close to your position that when your position falls, your ego goes with it.”