“…These include: the parenting capacity; the parent-child relationships; the needs of the child-food, shelter, education, medical care and any special needs; the location of the competing parties and whether this is stable; the length of time the child has lived in one stable environment and the desirability of maintaining continuity; and the reasonable preference of the child. Other criteria suggested were the moral, mental and physical fitness of the competing parties, but, at least in one jurisdiction (British Columbia, Canada), these are only considered if they interfere with the capacity to parent (Custody, Access and Guardianship, Fifth Report of Royal Commission on Family and Children 's Law, 1975), An agreement should be established with referring agents (Derdeyn, 1975;Rothschild, 1978;Krell, 1978;McDermott et al, 1978), who are frequendy lawyers for one or other competing party, that all contesting persons should be available for assessment and that the report should be made available to the judge or a lawyer appointed for the child (also known as a "child advocate" or "amicus curiae"). Both Gardner (1978) and Suarez (1978), however, feel that amicus curiae is more hindrance than help.…”