Who needs to know how to organize evidence for a custody case? If you think a custody battle might be in your future, understand how important it is to collect and organize any evidence you may need. By having this info ahead of time, you could save big bucks and have more control during negotiations.
Now is the time to start writing in a journal every day, while everything is still fresh in your mind. This should include any activities with your child and any behavior or incidences committed by your child’s other parent that cause you concern.
Here are how to organize evidence for a custody case:
How to Organize Evidence for a Custody Case Reliable?
Your testimony must be relevant to your dispute over child custody if you want it to be accepted in court. Limit your discussion to topics that pertain to child custody, your child’s health, and what is ultimately best for them. That concludes the section on gathering evidence for a custody dispute.
Your Child’s Best Interest
Before learning about how to organize evidence for a custody case, check out the children’s interest.
The well-being of your child is the primary concern for courts when making decisions about custody. Several factors are considered by judges to help them make these types of decisions, which include:
1. Current Physical Custody Schedule Already in Place
2. Domestic Violence – Does anyone in the household have a history of domestic violence?
3. Living Situation and Standards of Both Parents
4. Neglect – Have you or your child’s other parent been neglectful?
5. Parent’s Active Involvement – To what extent do you participate in your child’s life?
6. Substance Abuse – Do either you or the other parent abuse drugs and/or alcohol?
7. Willingness to Co-Parent – In order to be an effective parent, you must be willing to work with your child’s other parent.
While collecting evidence for your child custody case, keep the aforementioned factors in mind to make sure your evidence is directly related and will help strengthen your argument.
And if you want to know about grounds for full custody of child, to answer some of your questions and educate you, below is an outline of the grounds for obtaining complete custody, let’s check this article.
9 Types of Evidence You Should Gather
Let’s check out how to organize evidence for a custody case with this 8 types of evidences:
1. All communication with your child’s other parent, such as emails, text messages, voicemails, and letters
2. Journals
3. Photographs
4. Videos
5. Audio Recordings
6. Schedules – including specifying times when the other parent had to cancel or reschedule visitation
7. Records – including, but not limited to medical, school-related, financial, and police reports.
8. Social Media Posts
9. Your witness list
Type #1: Your Daily Journal
Your daily journal is key to your success in Court for the following reason: Any parent can give an oral testimony about what happened during specific exchanges involving your child. However, a more effective strategy would be for the parent to have a journal handy and refer to their written notes if needed, in order to better recall crucial details.
Type #2: Your Calendar
Your calendar with your child’s activities is like a journal; it documents the time you have spent together. This becomes another tool, along with your family law attorney, that shows how much time you’ve actually spent with your kid.
Keep your calendar close by so you can reference it at any time. On the calendar, document the dates and times when the other parent denied visitation as well as any other issues you’ve had with them. Doing this will help to establish a pattern of behavior before going to court. To be extra prepared, buy a large (5’ x 3’) wall calendar from an office supply store and write out all this information beforehand so you can take it with you to court.
Type #3: Flip Charts
If you are having trouble with the frequency of visits allowed to see your child, showing the court a graph of missed visits will be more impactful than simply telling them. This tactic, along with maintaining a calendar and daily journal, will help make your case to the judge.
Type #4: Photo Albums
By presenting hundreds of photos of you and your children together in court, it will be difficult for the judge to argue that you are not a good parent.
Type #5: Your Witness List
The witnesses that may help with your case are: family, employers, counselors, physicians, teachers, coaches and record keepers. Give this list to your attorney or work on it together.
1. Names, addresses, and phone numbers of any witnesses
2. Whether your witness is available to testify at a hearing or trial
3. Whether your witness is willing to appear in court and testify
4. Whether your witnesses’ employers will let them take time off work to testify
5. The evidence you want the witness to produce
6. The way your witness can strengthen your case. It is important to note that all of your potential witnesses may not be able to add to your case.
Remember that witness testimonies will play a role in how the judge sees your child custody case. The most helpful evidence usually comes from witnesses who don’t have any personal investment in you or the other parent, and ideally those with professional or first-hand knowledge of you and your child.
Don’t forget to include your kid’s daycare teacher, babysitter, and neighbors on your list of potential witnesses.
Type #6: Voicemails
If you have long voicemails from your child’s other parent, it would be best to only present the relevant sections to the court. The entire message is not always necessary and playing irrelevant parts of the messages could actually dissuade the court.
It is still important to have all voicemails available in case the court requests them at a later date. You should also discuss with your family law attorney how you plan on presenting these recordings in court.
Type # 7 and #8: Schedules and Social Posts
We’re also have schedules and social posts when it comes to how to organize evidence for a custody case, don’t forget this! Schedules can be seen as an concrete evidence as well as social posts that you can take advantages when it comes to how to organize evidence for a custody case.
Type #9: You Witness List
When the court requests a pretrial statement from you, it’s essential to establish a list of potential witnesses who can provide testimony in your favor. This could include family members, employers, tax preparers, therapists and physicians, and coaches or educators involved in the case.
When constructing this list of people, including pertinent facts such as their names and contact information for each individual specified.
1. The address and contact information of the witness.
2. The availability to appear at a hearing or trial of the witness.
3. The willingness to appear at a hearing or trial of the witness.
4. Whether the employer of the witness will consent to let them testify.
5. How to process a subpoena for the witness.
6. Which kinds of evidence you would need the witness to produce.
7. What the witness will be able to add to your case (this is the most important).
Engaging in pre-trial interviews with your potential witnesses can be a powerful tool to strengthen your case and learn about any other pieces of evidence or additional witnesses that may have been previously overlooked.
FAQs
Q: How should I present my evidence in court?
A: You and your attorney should discuss how and when you are going to present the evidence in court. Make sure that the evidence is relevant to the case and admissible in court. You will also want to make sure that you have all the full voicemails available, should the court request them.
Additionally, it is important to quickly get to the relevant portions of any evidence that may be long-winded or irrelevant. Make sure your evidence is organized in a way that is clear and easy to understand. This will maximize the chances of your evidence being viewed favorably by the court.
Q: What types of evidence should I organize for my child custody case?
A: Evidence that you can use to support your claims in a child custody case may include journals, calendars, flip charts, photo albums, witness lists, and voicemails. These documents must be relevant to the case and admissible in court in order for them to be used as evidence.
Q: How do I make sure my evidence is credible?
A: In order for your evidence to be admissible in court, it has to be relevant to your child custody case. Do not waste the court’s time on issues that have nothing to do with child custody, your child’s well-being, and the best interest of your child. Additionally, make sure that you have all the full voicemails available, should the court request them. You should also discuss how and when you are going to present the evidence in court with your family law attorney.
Q: What witnesses should I consider for my child custody case?
A: Witnesses who are not biased and have personal or expert knowledge of you, your child, and the child’s other parent can provide the most influential evidence in a child custody case. Don’t forget to include your child’s daycare provider, teachers, and neighbors as potential witnesses. Witnesses must be able to provide an unbiased account of their observations, so having outside sources can be helpful in strengthening your argument.
Q: What happens when if the father or mother lies in a custody case?
A: If the court believes that either parent is lying, then it can lead to a motion of contempt or perjury charge. The judge in your case will decide how to proceed based on how credible they believe each party’s testimony to be.
False and misleading information can reduce the credibility of both parties and may hurt the effectiveness of their argument. Therefore, it is important to make sure the information you present in court is accurate, truthful and relevant to your case.
Additionally, all parties should be mindful of how they present themselves in court and how their words are perceived. Appearing honest and credible can increase the chances of a positive outcome for your case.
Conclusion
Custody battles can be long and stressful, but eventually, there will be a final hearing where the court decides which parent the child will live with. If you want to increase your chances of winning custody, start learning how to organize evidence for a custody case and gathering evidence that proves you would make a better custodial parent.
Although your personal testimony carries little weight for the judge, you and your family law attorney can win your custody case by presenting clear evidence. It’s my pleasure to help you! Thank you for your time at our blog.
