Thread: How will my custody hearing proceed from start to finish?

I also have a witness who will say that she has seen a few times my 2 year old son was up and about in the kitchen while his mother was sleeping. Will this testimony be helpful?

You will hire an attorney and so will she. There will be witnesses on your side and witnesses on her side..the more witnesses...the more expensive it gets. There will be an attorney assigned to your child and he will be involved (mine was). Then the trial will start and you will have to be there..and there will be rescheduling and required classes and probationary visits to your home and the law guardian will have major input on what is in the best interest of the child. Around $25,000 later, you will get a decision from the judge that more than likely will be joint custody. Oh yea, don't forget about the psychologist too. Nightmare

It all depends on the tone of the whole case. Also it depends on what you are looking for. If you want sole custody, don't count on it. Unless there are documented cases of abuse or neglect most courts will not grant one parent (especially the father) sole physical custody. Your witness may or may not help. Many judges really don't care what witnesses say unless they are testifying to physical abuse or neglect. If you can afford an attorney then run everything by him first. If you can't I would try to keep the hearing as consise and brief as possible. Tell the judge what you are asking for, give him a few valid reasons why you should get what you are asking for, and that's it. My husband went through this a while back trying to get sole custody of his daughter. He called numerous witnesses to testify to his ex's excessive drinking, the hundreds of times she forgot to pick up their daughter from school, the fact that his daughter was absent or tardy to school an obscene amount of times only on the days he mother had custody, the fact that his ex's new husband was a convicted drug addict and that his ex's father was convicted of sexually abusing his own children. None of it mattered. We are now going through another custody hearing and he has been consise, telling the judge that what he wants is in the best intrest of the child, not dragging his ex through the mud and it seems to be going much better. Of course we aren't looking for sole custody we are trying to go from a 60-40 time split in favor of the mom to a 50-50 time split. Good luck!