The biggest mistake you may start with is taking custody battle to the court. It often happens that parents cannot come to an agreement on custody and make up a co-parental plan peacefully. So, their custodial case is taken to the court, where the judge along with child custody evaluators has to assess each of the parents and determine the share of decision-making and time-spending power each of the parents should have. Yet, no matter how professional and well-qualified the judge is, it is hardly impossible to assess fairly a pair of strangers and distribute the rights between them.
If you are able to cope with a divorce do it yourself kit, then you presumably should be able to deal with a custody agreement. But when it is still not possible due to some objective reasons, your main task is to represent yourself in the best way, so that you can get a leading role in a child’s custody. To do so, you need to avoid common mistakes not to spoil your reputation and lower our chances for custodial benefits.
Problems with the Law
The first common mistake people make is not taking law problems seriously. Any minor detail showing that you disobey the law can ruin your name in front of the court. Giving wrong information in divorce papers in Indiana will prove your insincerity, avoiding taxes – lack of responsibility, using drugs or alcohol in public places or while driving – improper behavior for a parent, speeding – lack of self-control, physical abuse – tendency for violence. Violating the law you will just add a negative feature characterizing you as an improper candidate to handle the custodial obligations.
More to this, if any law problems took place in kids’ presence, it will only double the negative effect the whole situation will have on your custodial chances. All in all, be careful with the law, avoid provocative situations, and if you happen to violate some law or regulation, care to get recovery as soon as possible and think of the good excuse for the court.
Violating Temporary Custody Orders
Being in process either with offline or online divorce services you need some rules to regulate your parenting and relationships with your children and soon-to-be-ex before the final order has been drawn by the court. That is why you get temporary custody orders from the court to handle your custodial obligations and co-parenting process. The orders usually concern the decision-making power and shares of time-spending with kids. No matter, if you like the orders or not, you’d better hold your opinion for a certain period of time and follow the rules.
If you disobey the orders, ignore the rules, or constantly complain about the judge’s decision, your behavior will be treated as disrespectful and humiliating as to the court and judge.
This will affect your reputation in general and you will be seen as an improper candidate to hold the leading custodial package and own final co-parenting benefits in the end.
Ambiguous Activity on Social Media
In modern society you can do everything on the Internet: work online, go shopping online, get divorce papers online, and even live online in social media. More to this your online activity is treated equally seriously to the real-life one.
That is why you need to think thoroughly before posting some ambiguous details of your life and personal opinion on your private page, which is not actually private, but open to the whole world. Realize that almost any content on social media may be used against you in the custody battle. Either you post complaints on your ex-partner or the court system, photos of drunk party or new girlfriend, or you quote a film, not meaning anything particularly, your posts may be treated as abusive and improper for a good parent and you lose your chances to prevail in custody argument. Even more, if your posts concern children, you can get into least beneficial situation.
Refusal of Cooperation
One more disadvantageous position for you is when you refuse to cooperate either with your ex-spouse or with the court. The latter option was already explained and you realize that disrespectful treatment of the court and judge will do no good for you. As to cooperation with the other parent, unless his/her presence in your and your children’s lives is dangerous, you have to calm your personal dissatisfaction down and learn to cooperate to supply your kids with full family care. If you still are not ready for cooperation with your ex in the co-parental program, so you may be seen as an improper candidate for being a parent and obtaining the beneficial custodial position.
In general, if you happen to end up with a custodial agreement in the court, you have to represent yourself from the best side. With your behavior and general image, you need to prove that you are the best appropriate candidate for owning the main custodial package and being an ideal co-parent.
Authors Bio
Greg Semmit has years of experience working with different types of legal documents and writing about Family Law for educational purposes. Currently, he is working at OnlineDivorcer company, where he writing blog articles about divorce and divorce cases. In his free time, he likes roaming the streets of New York with his Olympus taking photos of the best spots in the city.