What Qualifications Should Your Child Custody Attorney Have To Best Represent You In Your Child Custody Case?

At this point you should have a pretty good idea where you stand, so to speak, in regards to your case.

1. Are you communicating with the other parties petitioning for custody?

2. Is there any hope for negotiating a settlement outside of court?

If so, negotiating with an official mediator is the way to go. The mediator will help you negotiate a settlement, and will save everyone involved unnecessary legal expenses.

1. Is your case already extremely favorable to your success in obtaining custody or the agreement you desire, but the other parties refuse to negotiate?

2. Are there obvious reasons a judge would most likely award you custody?

In these types of situations, a lawyer with proven and tactical negotiating skills may be able to convince the other petitioner that it is their best interest to settle out of court or risk an even more unfavorable outcome through their litigation of the case with a judge.

In a case such as this, I would look for an attorney who is experienced in exploiting the weakness of the oppositions case and willing (maybe through your encouragement) to convincingly explain the wisdom of negotiating an “out of court” settlement to the other party.

Here, courtroom experience isn’t as important as smart and intuitive negotiating skills.

If the petitioners are hostile towards each other and there is no reasonable hope for negotiating a settlement, then litigation will be necessary.

When you know that you will be going to court, you will require an experienced child custody trial attorney.
Here are some things to look for:

1. How long have they been litigating? (Experience is crucial for obvious reasons)

2. How long have they been litigating in your area? (Courtroom relationships between lawyers and judges (often subconsciously) create a bias by judges to favor those whom they are familiar with)

3. How often do they litigate? (Courtroom relationships between lawyers and judges (often subconsciously) create a bias by judges to favor those whom they are familiar with)

4. How often do they win their cases? (Because of reasons beyond the attorney’s control this may not be as clear cut as it may seem – such as clients with money to burn that refuse to negotiate regardless of how bad their case may be – still, more wins than losses in the courtroom is obviously preferable and a good attorney will try to settle a case out of court that he believes is not winnable)

Don’t be afraid to ask these questions – Your children’s future is at stake.

Exercising Your Child Custody Rights – Plan of Action

Today we are discussing; Where do I start and how do I protect my children and win a fair custody settlement?

Basic enough, yes?

First, if you haven’t already signed up for our free newsletter and downloaded my “Child Custody Rights – Plan of Action” guide and read through it, please do so now.

Here is the link Child Custody Rights – Subscribe

Ok, so now that we are on the same page, so to speak, lets talk a little about assessing your specific situation.

At this point, there are basically 2 things that are crucial to your success.

1. Your physical, mental, and emotional state of being.
2. Deeply considering what is in “the best interest of your child/children”.

If you are not healthy and taking good care of yourself you lose in two ways. First, you will not be able to be on “top of your game” when it comes to strategy, and you will find it difficult to properly process the information you will be gathering in your research. You also will be prone to emotional excess which does not lead to wise decision making.

Second, if you are not taking care of yourself, your ability to take care of your children may be called into question.

So, take a deep breath. Know that you will overcome all the obstacles that lay before you. Do what is necessary to stay healthy and maintain a calm state of mind and then confidently move forward.

The next thing you need to do is to deeply consider, “What is in the best interest of the children”. Isn’t that what it is really all about? Too often, divorcing parents use the children as pawns in a game of revenge and retribution against each other. Maybe this is what is happening to you? The results in these cases are damaging to the children regardless of who finally ends up with custody.

So, first and foremost, think of the children before you do or say anything that may adversely affect them. Taking the “high moral road” may not be the easiest way to achieve your end results, but in the end you will be happier with the final results and so will your children.

Once you are confident in deciding on the best possible situation for your children, and you feel good about the reasons for your decision, try to negotiate these terms with the other petitioner(s) for custody. Possibly, if you have been fair in considering the best interests of the children, the others will agree with you and you will avoid costly trial litigation.

If the other petitioner(s) disagree with your proposal, you won’t be deterred because you will know that you have already given it considerable thought and if you feel good about your decision you will be able to fight for the best interests of the children with honest conviction. Judges, by the way, really only consider one general aspect when awarding custody. You guessed it, it’s what’s in the best interest of the children.

Getting started and considering all the various aspects of a child custody case can be meticulous and draining.

I found a free list online that will help you get started and present to you some questions you may not have even thought to consider.

If you remember, I spoke of the Child Custody Library in my Plan Of Action Guide. I didn’t realize at the time that Dr. Barry Bricklin and Dr. Gail Elliot, two of the country’s most famous and respected child custody experts, had included this Custody checklist for free on their site (as well as having the 200+ specific case ebook downloads available for purchase). So I highly recommend you look it over and see how this list can help you.

Here is how to find the checklist.

Go to this link: Child Custody Rights – Child Custody Library

1. It is a good idea to bookmark this page for quick and easy access
2. Click on the Custody Library banner at the top of the page
3. When you get to the Custody Library Page, scroll down to the bottom of the page
4. There you will find the extensive Custody Checklist list

The Checklist is absolutely free and is provided as a courtesy by Dr. Barry Bricklin and Dr. Gail Elliot. There is no reason to buy anything, unless you require the detailed expertise of Dr. Bricklin and Dr. Elliot, and do find an ebook that is specific to your case.

I hope that everything is going well and that everything is looking a bit brighter concerning your custody case.

Wouldn’t it be nice if everyone found themselves in the situation where their break-up with the other parent was simple and amicable.

Where a simple meeting between the two parties could bring forth a fair custody agreement with a lawyer needed only to look over and help finalize the documents.

If you are in that position, consider yourself lucky.

Unfortunately, most of us end up in situations where it is much more complicated, and hiring qualified and experienced legal representation becomes essential to winning an appropriate decision for the custody of our children.

How To Know If You Can Trust Your Lawyer

The good news is, if you have been following the Plan of Action guide you already have many of the tools needed to properly critique your lawyer’s performance.

As we talked about before, “arming yourself with knowledge and information” will be one of the best things you can do to protect yourself from being taken advantage of by a lazy or unscrupulous lawyer.

1. Through your research you will already have a good idea of what needs to be done and how it is to be accomplished. (If your lawyer strays from what seems to be the obvious course of action he should have a very good reason and be able to clearly explain that reason to you. If your lawyer fails this test, find yourself another lawyer.)
2. Be attentive and interactive with your case. (If you can do this in a friendly yet assertive manner, and your lawyer sees that you are knowledgeable and inquisitive, he will be less likely to “drag out” the processing of your case and he will be more precise in his handling of your case.)

Lawyers also love to charge high per hour rates while “explaining” your case to you. If you are already familiar with legal terminology and understanding the procedural aspects of your case, you can save time and money.

Otherwise, choose your lawyer wisely by obtaining referrals from friends, family, and work colleagues.

How is your custody case progressing? I hope you are moving forward in a decidedly positive and confident manner.

The first thing I want to share with you today is a way to make your internet research more productive while using Google.

Like I promised you in my last email, here is the:

Free Search Technique to Finding the Best and Most Accurate Region Specific Information For Your Case.

All you need to do is copy the following search code and paste it into the normal Google search window.

site:.edu: -”.com” -”.org” -”.net” “Your City or State” “Your Search Term”

Highlight the area shown in red and enter your own local city or state.
Then highlight the area shown in blue and enter your search term.

For Example:

If you live in California and you want to search for Child Custody, your search code would look like this:

site:.edu: -”.com” -”.org” -”.net” “California” “Child Custody”

(make sure you don’t accidentally omit the quotation marks)

What this code does is tell Google

1. You want a listing of pages from sites that are primarily educational and governmental sites
2. You want google to omit all .com .org and .net sites from your search results
3. You want search returns relating to the state of California and Child Custody

This will effectively produce results that are the most relevant to your area and search term, as well as, produce returns that are primarily from trusted educational and governmental sites.

You may have noticed during your previous research online, that you had to wade through thousands of sites looking for information relevant to your case.

This is actually good (though laborious) to do, in order to expose yourself to various opinions and views as they pertain to your case.

Now though, you are able to cross-reference the information you have acquired through your previous research, using “open” searches, with the information you will find through this “closed” type search on these more official educational and governmental sites.

You can experiment with different search terms to increase the likely hood of getting more relevant and optimum results. You might also replace the .edu part of the code with .gov (this will put the focus of the search on government sites rather than educational ones).

I will be honest and tell you, your success in finding official educational and government sites in your area will be highly dependent on where you live. Highly populated cities and states tend to have more official resources online than less populated areas.

If you are having problems locating trusted child custody informational resources and representation in your area, you may want to consider online child custody experts – already proven and tested – to guide you through the minefield of child custody negotiations and litigation.

One of the hardest things to do with any ambiguous task is to actually get started. With a million thoughts racing around your mind, you may feel overwhelmed and lost as to where to start. So, let’s break it down.

Search these terms in Google.

1. Custody Rights (General Term)
2. Fathers Rights (More Specific Term)
3. Mothers Rights (More Specific Term)

Then within these results, search for more specific terms as they apply to your situation.

(you can search again, within any search results in google, by scrolling down and clicking, “search within results”, at the very bottom of the page)

For Example:
If you have already searched “Fathers Custody Rights” stay on that same page and click the “search within results” link, and then in the Google search box that appears you might type “California” or “low cost” or “taking child out of state”. This will begin to narrow your search and give you more specific Google search returns.

This is the first step and you will be using the assessment of your situation (like we talked about in the Plan of Action) to guide you in your research. Keep a pen and paper handy while you search, you will find it becomes a mental “free association exercise” and you will end up with new questions and thoughts, so write them down so you don’t forget. Staying organized is key to focused research and makes it much easier to do.

Now this is all great to get you started, but this method only works well for those issues that you are aware of and need information for, or you uncover during your research. But, what about all those other details you should be familiar with but are not yet aware of? Here are a couple of quick solutions.

The Custody Library Checklist that I mentioned in the Part 1 email is ideal for making you aware of topics and issues you had not yet thought of.

Even better, the Custody Library itself is a great model for your own checklist.

If you browse their ebook topics, you will find that there are several issues / aspects pertaining to your case that you were not even really conscious of.

It’s absolutely free to do this and you will find a wide range of topics you can then research on your own.

Once again, the actual ebooks are for sale, and we do receive a commission if you buy one, no need to buy anything if you don’t require the expert advice of  Dr. Barry Bricklin and Dr. Gail Elliot, but if you decide you do, thanks for the support

Here is the link to both the Checklist and the Custody Library

What is the best custody advice for a parent who wants to move to another State with the children?

Moving out of state and retaining custody legally can be a difficult  maneuver for the custodial parent.

It is always best to work out an amicable arrangement with the other parent and to use mediation to work out child support issues as well as visitation schedules.

If the other parent refuses to agree to the move, legal proceedings will be necessary and you will want to find a qualified attorney to represent you.

First and foremost, you will need to put your needs aside and focus on “the best interest of the child or children” (I show a distinction here between child/children because, in this situation, what is best for one child may not be ideal for the siblings).

If you move out of State:

1. Will the environment be more conducive to a well-adjusted upbringing for the children? (ex. rural vs urban inner-city)
2. Are the schools better? (ex. ranked higher for scholastic achievement or better funded)
3. Will the children have better care in their new environment? (ex. moving close to grandparents acting as daycare vs hired help)

These are the sort of questions you should be asking yourself and in the end putting forth before a judge to determine. Make sure your claims are valid and convincing before you present them to a judge.

Your welfare and needs are also valid and should be expressed as well, just be sure to put your children’s needs first when making a petition to the court as that is their main focus in determining any custody arrangements.

Your needs might include such things as:

1. You have a good job (or offer) in the State in which you want to move. (this is a sign you have begun securing your basic needs and that you are prepared to  move and you have thought it through.
2. Better standard of living. (ex. maybe you want to move to Texas where the cost of living is much lower than if you are currently residing in New York City, so you are better able to provide for your children. This is proof for the court that you are looking out for your children’ future)
3. Your emotional — mental — physical support systems are in the State where you want to move. (ex. maybe you originally moved to your current State to accommodate your ex-partner and now that the separation has occurred you want to move back home because  you feel isolated and alone and need the support of friends and family to properly raise your children)

Take some time and consider all the positive reasons you can list for moving the children. Discuss these reasons with your attorney and consider and prepare for the counter-arguments of the other parent.