Raiford Palmer Completes Mediation Training

I recently completed mediation training with Danuta and Steve McDaniel at College of DuPage along with my partner Emily Carrara.  We enjoyed the training and I believe it will enhance our ability to assist clients as well as parties requiring divorce and family law mediation.  We can accept private divorce and family law mediation clients, and are applying to the Eighteenth Judicial Circuit Court (DuPage County) to be court-appointed mediators in custody cases.  

Along with other attorneys in our firm I have extensive collaborative law experience, and mediation dovetails very well with my collaborative practice.  

If you have a family law matter requiring mediation, please call our firm, Sullivan Taylor & Gumina, P.C. at 630.665.7676 and ask to schedule an initial mediation appointment.  I look forward to working with you.

Report of Section 604(b) Custody Evaluator Not Confidential

Feb. 25, 2011:  In a case decided by the Illinois Supreme Court, Heather Johnston and her parents filed a lawsuit based on breach of the Illinois Mental Health Confidentiality Act.  They claimed that both of Ms. Johnston's ex-husbands (McCann and Weil), their attorneys, and the child representatives from both cases violated the Act.  In the case, plaintiffs claimed that McCann and his attorneys violated the act by allegedly disclosing a Rule 604(b) child custody evaluation report to Weil and his counsel.    

Defendants filed a motion to dismiss.  The key defense - that the contents of the 604(b) evaluation report were not confidential.  The trial court denied the motions to dismiss, and the Defendants appealed.  The Appellate Court, First District, rejected the ruling of the trial court, agreeing that the evaluation report was not confidential and therefore not protected from disclosure by the Confidentiality Act.  Ms. Johnston appealed to the Illinois Supreme Court.  

The Supreme Court agreed with the Appellate Court.  The Court ruled that reports and information obtained pursuant to Section 604(b) of Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act are not confidential under the Mental Health Confidentiality Act.  The Mental Health Confidentiality Act protects communication between a patient and a therapist, but not information obtained or reports provided for a child custody evaluation under 750 ILCS 5/640(b).

The conclusion - do not expect information provided to a mental health professional for a 604 custody evaluation to be confidential.  

Link:   http://www.state.il.us/court/opinions/SupremeCourt/2011/February/109693.pdf

Illinois Appellate Court upholds trial court denial of attorney at 604.5 child custody evaluation.

In Marriage of Molloy, the Cook County trial court ruled that the attorney for the father could not attend the custody evaluation, reasoning that the mother was not represented by an attorney and this might result in an unbalanced custody evaluation. The father appealed. The Appellate Court, First District, ruled that the trial court order was not appealable. The Court held that the trial court order was administrative, not a final and appealable order. Link