Family Law: Supervised Visitation

Not long ago, an acquaintance was waiting in the hall with her grandchildren when a court officer came out, told her she'd been named as the person to supervise visitation, and told her to go into the court room before the judge where her child and the grandchildren's other parent were appearing on a custody/visitation matter. I chalked it up to one of those one-off situations that sometimes happens, given the collision between strict legal procedures and messy family emotion. However, the NY Times reports on another, somewhat related wrinkle to the area of supervised visitation: the fact that many people who are ordered to have a neutral, non-related supervisor can't afford the rates to have professional supervision.

Editorializing under cover of "analysis" may follow.