So You Wanna Sue for Custody?

by: Alison Moxley

Consider these facts before you start your petition for full custody:

• The average contested custody battle costs $35,000, and can easily exceed $75,000 if the case proceeds to a trial.
• Custody proceedings take, on average, 2-4 years to resolve
• In a custody battle, your life is an open book. Court investigators can interview your neighbors, co-workers, friends and families, seeking out damaging information about you.
• You may be subject to home studies. Social workers will come to your home and look in your closets, your refrigerator, and search your mailbox. Some may even take your child’s clothes off and search their body for bruises. Do you want a male social worker coming to your home examining your 8 year old daughter’s naked body?
• Anything you have ever done wrong can be used as evidence against you. Have you ever:

Smoked cigarettes
Drank alcohol
Had speeding tickets
…these things count against you in a custody battle

• Have you ever spanked your child or raised your voice? This is considered abuse and can cause you to lose or be denied custody
• For moms: Have you enrolled your child in daycare while you worked full time? This can be considered against you. It demonstrates that you are not available on a full time basis to care for the child. Are you a stay at home mom? This can be used against you. It demonstrates that you are unemployed and don’t have the resources to care for your child effectively. Since you are unemployed, you are unstable.

Nobody wins in a custody case. At the end, the child loses a valuable relationship with one parent, the parents lose their respect for one another, and the lawyers walk away with a brand new Mercedes-Benz/BMW/Lexus/Luxury second home, etc…

The outcome of custody cases are never guaranteed, and sometimes the better parent loses custody of the child. Don’t let this happen to you. The best way to avoid losing your relationship with the child is not to get into a bitter battle in the first place.

DON’T LET THE COURTS DECIDE. YOU ARE NOT A FAMILY. YOUR CHILD IS NOT A CHILD. IN THEIR EYES, YOU ARE SIMPLY ANOTHER CASE.