Britney And The Child Abuse Investigation
An unscheduled hearing was held today in Superior Court in regards to an investigation into possible child abuse by Britney Spears. Attending were people from Protective Services as well as Britney's attorney and K-Fed's attorney.
This is what I think triggered the hearing. As I said in a previous post, when you are requesting a change in custody or visitation, mediation is required prior to any court hearings. This is done so the two parties can get together and try to avoid the time and expense of a full blown court hearing. Often this mediation is done informally at the courthouse, but just as often it is a formal mediation off-site and both parties are instructed to be there and it can take several hours. During this particular type of mediation, attorneys are not present in the actual room. It is just a mediator and the two parents.
During the mediation if either parent makes any abuse allegations, California law requires the mediation be immediately halted and a report is sent to Child Protective Services who will investigate the allegation and then make their report to the court. Most of the time it is just a parent saying something inflammatory and has no relation to any actual abuse. However, California law requires CPS to come in and investigate, make their report to the court, and if no abuse is found, then mediation can continue, usually with a different mediator.
This is what I think probably happened, and today was probably the report to the Court from CPS.
Don't assume Britney is abusing her children. This type of incident happens frequently and doesn't even mean that the parent actually believes abuse is occurring. It's my experience that if there is actual abuse it's discovered well before it ever gets to a mediator. However, it's always better to be safe than sorry.
