A VoC obtains the child’s experiences, views, and preferences and assesses their strength, consistency over time, and whether they are influenced by parents or other individuals. Children need to be mature enough, verbally, emotionally, and cognitively, to be interviewed reliably. The children’s voices help inform decision-making regarding the development of the parenting plan, but do not carry the burden of being the final decision-makers. There are no detailed parenting plan recommendations, as these are only provided as part of a comprehensive parenting plan assessment.
Limits on confidentiality: All discussions and communications with parents and children are open and transparent and may be disclosed in the final report, which is available to the other parent, legal counsel, and the courts.
Voice of the Child Reports
When are they useful?
Benefits of the VoC
- Focuses on the child’s perspective and their experience in their separated family.
- Reveals whether a child is being directly or indirectly exposed to parent conflict, which can negatively impact their well-being.
- Shares the child’s reasons for resisting or refusing to have contact with a parent.
- Reveals the child’s views on parenting approaches.
- Identifies potential red flag issues (e.g., substance misuse, mental health, etc.).
- Provides the child’s views and preferences on mobility (i.e., parents’ proposal to relocate).
- Helps parents develop a child-informed parenting plan.
- It is less intrusive and lengthy than a full parenting plan assessment process.
- Helps develop a child-focused parenting plan before physically separating.
- Facilitates settlement discussions in and outside of court proceedings by independently obtaining the children’s views and preferences.
- Provides the child’s updated views and preferences following a parenting plan assessment before a trial.
- Post-VoC check-in interviews can be a relatively quick way to assess how the children are adapting to parenting schedule changes.
VoC: Process & Types
Getting started
- Both parents should complete a VoC contract and send their respective retainers.
- Unless the VoC is court-ordered with or without both parents’ consent/involvement, both parents’ contracts and consents are required. Both parents’ participation is encouraged, as it provides a balanced perspective.
- Parents will be sent a pre-interview intake form to complete prior to their scheduled interview.
Process
- Individual parent interviews: Obtain historical and current context to better tailor child interviews.
- Child interviews: Three interviews, interspersed 2–3 weeks apart. They are conducted at school, home, or another location.
- Disclosure meeting: A virtual meeting is conducted with both parents, counsel, and the mediator (if involved) to disclose findings and analysis regarding the strength, consistency, and independence of the child’s views and preferences.
- Report: It is submitted to both parents and counsel as a PDF following the disclosure meeting.
- Testifying: A summons sent by email is required for testimony at trial. Parents should provide Ms. Bourgeois enough notice to allow preparation time.
Simplified VoC
For parents wishing to save on costs, they may elect to simplify the process by eliminating parent interviews and the virtual disclosure meeting. Parents are still asked to provide information via written intake forms.
Hybrid VoC
Upon request from legal counsel or the court, Ms. Bourgeois can gather records or information from certain professionals to ensure they are gathered and summarized in a neutral and objective manner (e.g., child therapist, child protection records, police occurrence reports, supervised parenting time notes, etc.).
Cost & Duration
Cost
- Billed at a rate of $225/hour +HST.
- To start, a $4,000 retainer is required.
- Send payments via Interac e-Transfer® to cbourgeois@chantalbourgeois.ca, or by cheque.
Additional charges include travel expenses and fees charged by collateral sources.
Costs can be split equally, shared proportionally to income, or paid by a single payor.
Total costs depend on the number of children and duration of the parent interviews.
Some or all services may be covered by your insurance plan. Please consult your insurance company directly for coverage details.
Duration
The goal is to complete VoC process within 60 days. To facilitate the process, parents are asked to be flexible about scheduling their interview times.