Most of us feel paralyzed when we have to go to court for child custody.
There is so much we don’t know that we want to know right away, to try to get control of our new situation:
There is so much we don’t know that we want to know right away, to try to get control of our new situation:
How long will the custody case go on?
How much money is this going to cost?
Will the kids be negatively affected by this custody battle?
It makes sense that it’s hard. There is a lot to think about.
It’s COSTLY.
It’s RISKY.
It’s ANXIETY-PROVOKING.
Your child needs protection, or you would not have gotten this far. You would have simply hammered out a parenting agreement with your co-parent.
Or you would have gone to mediation or used lawyers to finalize an agreement between you.
Or, hopefully, the furthest you’d go is to file a petition in family court, and then an appearance or two would propel your co-parent toward forming a settlement agreement with you.
But that’s not what’s happened.
What you need to do now is present yourself to the court in a way which showcases your strengths as a parent.
Often you must fight to show your truth and show your co-parent’s truth. Your lawyer can help you prepare up to a point, but your legal fees are best spent on their legal advice and court representation; you can save thousands of dollars by organizing the evidence yourself, and I can help you.
The amount of information and evidence you need to present can be confusing, misleading, and overwhelming, for both you to gather and present and for the evaluator to understand and be convinced of. But you can do so–triumphantly–through honesty, strategy, and courage.
Know what you need to do to succeed before you go to family court.
As someone who has been through my own forensics evaluation in a custody battle, I used my years of expertise and quick understanding and assessment to create a superbly organized body of evidence, using categorized templates to provide documentation which helped the court get a clear picture of the tenor of the co-parenting relationship I was in.
These templates went on to become widely requested and used by others, and my advice and the story of my experience soon became of help to scared, hopeless parents…creating confident, prepared noble warriors!
20+
Years
10+
Years
20
Years
Degree in Psychology
Certified Instructional Designer (ATD)
Domestic Violence Advocate