Examining the Qualifications and Role of Professional Visit Supervisors

Hello, my name is Brian L. Jackson. I’m a Tulsa father’s rights attorney here with Dad.Law, where fathers are not disposable. So guys, we talked about social workers, we talked about cops as witnesses. One other witness that I see in court and find myself summoning to court more often these days are professional supervisors for visitation.

Now I’ve talked in the past about what value they bring to the table as a witness, but for purposes of this discussion, I want to talk more about whether or not they would be able to be qualified as an expert. Generally speaking, I would say no. I mentioned in my last video that social workers, typically their education level is a bachelor’s.

There are certainly supervisors out there that their education level is a high school diploma. And there’s nothing wrong with that, and I’m not cracking on anybody as far as that goes. But essentially, that’s going to mean they have the same education as any person walking on the streets. And the only other potential expertise they might have is if they have a lot of experience as a supervisor. You’re not typically talking about people with a background in anything specializing with child welfare or child psychology or anything like that. It’s typically somebody with any background who can pass a background check for those purposes. I’ve even seen retired law enforcement officers that get into doing supervised visitation.

Are Professional Supervisors Qualified as Expert Witnesses?

So they’re not someone you’re probably going to be able to qualify as an expert witness for the purposes of them rendering an opinion. But again, your usual reason you’re going to call that person isn’t as an opinion witness anyway. They’re usually a fact witness. They’re going to testify to what they saw during visitation and what they put in their report. And that’s usually the long and short of why you want them there.

And they can certainly add something to your case under the right circumstances. They can add quite a lot as a neutral fact witness. So they’re not without value, but typically their opinion isn’t going to carry a whole lot of weight because they’re going to most likely be considered a layperson.

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Guys, if you have any questions about that, I would encourage you to go to Dad.Law where fathers are not disposable. Contact us to schedule a initial consultation and discuss your Oklahoma family law case. We are here to support you and fight for your rights as a father.