subject: Advice For You Regarding How To Win Custody As A Father [print this page] If you want to get full custody of your children, you'll likely find yourself working against the sociological and legal bias in favor of keeping children with their mother. This bias can be found even if you're just now separating from their mother or are trying to have the custody issue reassessed. Despite this challenge, there are valuable tips on how to win custody as a father.
Having the right attorney will prove invaluable in your effort. Some have advised that hiring a female attorney to handle your custody issue can help mitigate the mother preference bias. Whether this is true, the more important factor in selecting an attorney is having success in the past in similar cases.
Furthermore, the right attorney will understand the judges of your local jurisdiction. This attorney should already know well what types of legal evidence and arguments are persuasive to each individual judge. The personal quirks and personalities of each judge should also be well know. This way, regardless of which judge gets assigned to your case, your attorney will be able to tailor the presentation of your case to best meet that judge's preferences.
Another area to focus on is having an actual, positive relationship with your children. If you aren't active in their school, community, or religious institution, you should become so. You should also document your time and activities with your children. This means more than a photo album (although that's valuable too). There is no reason not to have prolonged videos of the time you spend with your children.
Paper documentation can also be helpful in showing the extent of your involvement in your children's life and that you're meeting your responsibilities as a father. You can keep all receipts for purchases you make either with them (hair cuts) or for them (school tuition). If their mother isn't using your child support to pay for things and you're paying for them directly, these can be especially helpful documents. They could show not only that you're fulfilling your duties, but that she's not fulfilling hers.
Since you will probably have to show that the children aren't being well cared for with their mother, you'll need as much evidence of that as you can get. Your stories or suspicions won't likely have much weight. You can talk to neighbors to get a sense of what's going on at the home when you're not there. If it makes sense, these neighbors might also be good witnesses.
Your own behavior will be important as well. It can be easy to lose your temper during a custody battle, and there might even be times where it would be perfectly understandable. However, you'll want to remember that getting angry isn't likely to help your case. Courts rely heavily on the evaluations of the professionals with whom you'll have to meet, like psychologists and social workers. Even if you feel humiliated for having to meet with them, it will be more helpful for you to focus on your goal of having your children.
The experience of trying to get physical custody of your children can be an emotional and challenging one. You can find assistance though. These tips on how to win custody as a father are only a place to begin.
