Thursday, June 4, 2009

Win Child Custody: How to Prepare

By Dianna Nelsun

If you want to win child custody, you need to be prepared. This applies even if you are just meeting with your child's other parent or if you need to present a case in court. You need to be prepared so you can get the time you want with your child.

Showing up with the right documents is the best way to prepare. Professional documents containing all of the information about your custody situation will impress the child's other parent and also a judge. Here is an outline of the papers to prepare so you can win your case.

You need to create a custody and visitation schedule. Decide on the custody arrangement that you want and then figure out a repeating cycle that will implement the schedule. For example, suppose you want joint custody with equal time for both parent. You decide that the best way to implement that is to have the child live with one parent during the week and have several visits and the weekends with the other parent.

Figure out your repeating cycle and write it out. Then you can apply it to a calendar. It's useful to have both formats to show your former spouse or the court because it gives a nice visual of the situation and a quick explanation.

Along with the custody schedule, create a holiday schedule. The easiest way to do this is to write out a list of all of the holidays and then assign custody to them. Make sure you give equal amounts of big and small holidays. If you want, you can also put them on the calendar.

There should also be a document that contains the other visitation information. This would be things like vacation times, special events, or other variations from the schedule. Write it all out and then put it in the calendar--it's very impressive to have the information in two formats.

The last document to think about is a list of any provisions or stipulations you'd like the other parent to agree to about raising your child. Perhaps you'd like to have a clause that neither parent says negative things about the other one in the child's presence. You can make a list of whatever is important to you and whatever you'd like the court to order your child's other parent to do.

Taking the time to prepare will ensure that you win your custody case. It will help because the child's other parent or the court will accept your custody agreement and plan. And, you'll be able to get the time you want with your child.

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