A custody hearing, for many a parent, may prove to be one of the most important moments of their life. After all, this hearing will determine who gets custody of the kids you had with the other parent, as well as how much contact you are entitled to have with the child. Because of how important this is, it is important that you be prepared for this situation. As such, we have prepared some helpful tips to know how to prepare for your custody hearing.
Tips to prepare for your custody hearing
Before you do anything else, the most important thing to do is figure out whether you should work with an attorney. Not every courtroom situation requires an attorney, even in family court. For example, if the other parent is being relatively amicable and is simply trying to find the best solution for everyone involved, you may be able to settle this fairly easily. However, a lot of child custody cases are not amicable at all. In those situations, it is of the utmost importance that you retain the services of a Woodridge Child Custody Attorney. There is no point to going into the hearing with a handicap because the other parent likely will not be in this situation.
The next step is to get an understanding of how child custody works in your state. Different states have different ways of handling child custody as well as the proceedings, so that awareness will make all the difference to your success. This is going to involve reading through a lot of fine print and minutiae, but it will be worth it in the long run. Your attorney can also help you understand how the laws work if any of it is causing you confusion. On top of this, understanding how the better-parent standard works will help you in the long run. This is only relevant in the circumstance that a parent is seeking sole custody of the child, which is a difficult thing to accomplish. You have to have some pretty compelling evidence to show that one parent is so bad that they should have no custody whatsoever.
Once you feel like you have an adequate grasp of how child custody works in your state, the next step is to get all relevant documents prepared. Not only does this help you when it comes to providing all the necessary evidence and information, but it reflects well on you in court. The more prepared and competent your case appears, the more reliable you come off as a result. The biggest hurdle that exists here is figuring out exactly what documents you should bring, and that is ultimately going to depend on your lawyer, who has a lot of experience in this area.
While your attorney (if you have one) is going to be representing you a lot in court, it is important that you know how to represent yourself as well. When presenting in front of the judge, you should make sure that you are on your best behavior. That is, keep your emotions in check, be respectful to everyone — the other parent included. No matter how the other parent acts, no matter how much animosity you may have built up, allowing yourself to become angry or upset with them will only reflect poorly on you. It may suggest to the judge that this anger or upset may manifest in unhealthy ways around your child or children. You can work with an attorney to practice. Also, make sure that you dress appropriately. No judge is going to appreciate your candor if it seems like you are not taking this seriously. Wear something formal, something conservative. Much like how you should not speak too loudly in court, your clothing should not be too loud either. Kids love clowns, but judges do not.
The next step should be to get a grasp on how the proceeds are going to go. These kinds of cases are not going to be quite as adversarial as other court cases and knowing how exactly they operate will help them figure out what to anticipate. They are also not very long, with a judge likely to issue a child-custody order immediately following your case being presented. If you or the other parent disagrees with the judge’s decision, they can escalate the case by appealing the verdict.
If you or the other parent do decide to appeal, there are important things to understand. Much like how laws vary from state to state on child-custody hearings, so too do the laws that deal with appealing a verdict made in child-custody hearings. If you did not work with a lawyer in the first part, you should definitely work with one if the case is appealed. Make sure to work with your attorney to better educate you on the circumstances that would allow you to appeal in the first place. An important thing to consider is that in the appeal, the higher court will use the exact same standards that the lower court used. Meaning, if the lower court judge’s reason for delivering the verdict was both in good faith and based on the best interests of the child, you are unlikely to see the verdict overturned at appeal. Of course, this may well change in the event that new information is brought to light.
