Strategies for Child Custody

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Child custody is an area of family law that can be tricky even in the best circumstances. When there is a lot of contention, it can be even more difficult. It takes an attorney that knows and understands the intricacies of family law and that has your best interests in mind.

Custody cases that have a high level of conflict will typically end up in the courtroom rather than settling. Parents in these cases need to understand this and need to realize that it’s often the only way they can get what they need. It can sometimes be difficult for a parent to realize that they sometimes need to change up their tactics because their current strategies are not working. Family law attorneys Mesa can help with this and it sometimes involves helping to mold the parent into someone that has a greater potential to win the custody case.

 

Parents Might Be Approaching the Case Wrong

Choosing to be aggressive or looking for ways to disparage the ex will not always work. Instead, the courts are looking for someone who is the responsible parent that shows up and does what they need to do. You need to show that you are the one in charge and that you are caring for the children, while the other side appears to be the one that’s causing problems. You do not want to look like the difficult parent in these cases.

Parents have not likely gone through a situation like this before, and they don’t know how to act or what to do. An attorney can help by letting you know how they should be doing things for the best results. Often, this is difficult for parents to hear. They want to protect their children, but they often take actions that are not necessary, such as getting certain authorities involved when there is no reason. Parents need to take a breath and sometimes start fresh. Working with an attorney will make this possible. They can come in with a different perspective and can provide the help needed to get the custody case back on the right track.

 

Third-Parties: Pros and Cons

Therapeutic intervention is one of the options that is sometimes used when there are problems within a family, including families that are going through custody issues. For example, if a teenager decides that they don’t like a decision their primary caregiver made, they might head to the other parent’s house and want to live there. Sometimes, a therapist is brought in to help with the situation, but it doesn’t always provide as much benefit as you would hope. It always depends on the situation and the help that the child needs.

Therapeutic intervention can work in some cases, such as when a parent that was not around a lot wants to come back into a child’s life. However, in cases where there is an upset teenager that just wants to get their way, it won’t work. Instead, it’s generally best to have them go back to the original parent.

Another third-party that sometimes becomes involved in child custody is a parenting coordinator. If they are used, they need to be appointed by an agreement between the parties involved, not the judge. The coordinators essentially help make decisions when parents have joint legal decision-making and have disagreements. This can work for some people, but some couples will overuse them and drag a former spouse to the coordinator for every issue. This can be expensive and frustrating. It’s often better for just one parent to have legal decision-making rights if this is an issue.

 

Evaluations

Psychological evals often come up in family court. They happen when one party wants to have the other person evaluated. While they can potentially provide a mental health diagnosis, they don’t provide recommendations on what to do in terms of custody. It provides only basic information that could be used in court, but that won’t always fix the problem. They also tend to be expensive.

Limited scope evaluations will include psych evals and have more scope. The person doing the evaluation can go deeper, however, it still may not be the best solution because they can’t provide recommendations. A comprehensive family evaluation, however, can. The comprehensive evaluations may be a better solution because it looks at everything. They talk with third-parties and witnesses, and the children are interviewed. This is an ongoing process, and it can often take from six months to a year. They can then provide recommendations on what they have learned.

Comprehensive family evaluations can be beneficial, but they are expensive. They tend to start at $10,000 and go up from there. Parents need to determine whether it is worth it or not.

Asking for Zero Parenting Time

In some cases, a parent might not want the other parent to have any time with the children. However, this is uncommon. For a judge to grant this, there need to be serious ongoing issues, such as substance abuse problems. The court will typically try to provide at least supervised parenting time in most situations. If there are safety concerns, it is often better to ask for supervision rather than asking for no time. However, each case is different. Your attorney can advise you on the best options.

 

Have a Strategy

Custody is not easy, and you can’t go in with half a plan. You need to have strategies. Of course, this means you also need to understand the options that you have, whether it’s evaluations, therapy for your child, parent coordinators, etc. Even the level of aggression you have when you are approaching the case can play a role and needs to be part of your strategy. Although there may be some similarities from one case to the next, they are all different. No “cookie cutter” approach will work for everyone.

The best thing you can do is find a qualified, experienced family law attorney. Work with them to develop a good, strong strategy for your custody case.

Child Custody Lawyer