What happens when you have your final court hearing for custody?

Toni - posted on 11/01/2012

I'm gonna have to use that "I am a pretty good judge of character and would not have married someone like you are describing" when we get to our hearing. I'm sure their attorney will say the same thing to me.

Larissa - posted on 04/05/2012

Check out my new post for the judgement!

Larissa - posted on 03/20/2012

Wow that sucks. Our judge did not give us a time frame for his judgement. This is hard to wait on, especially since we've been waiting a year to get to this point..... thanks for your help.

Penny - posted on 03/19/2012

I think it depends on the state. In our case regarding joint legal custody and parenting time the first time the judge had 90 days after attorneys submitted written synopsises of court to him. He took about 90 days. In our other rulings we had time restraints like over spring break so he obviously had to rule before spring break and did it the week or two before spring break.

Larissa - posted on 03/19/2012

Penny, how long (roughly) did it take for the judge to make his decision? Our judge told our lawyers they had 2 weeks to send in a written final argument and then he'd make his decision... but he didn't tell us how long we would have to wait to get an answer. My lawyer said probably a few day to a week but it's been almost 3 weeks.... my lawyer also doesn't typically work in that county, so he might be used to judges doing things faster in our town....... how long can the judge take to make his decision???

Larissa - posted on 03/03/2012

We had our court hearing the 20th of february... long story short, our lawyers have until this tuesday to submit a written closing argument, and then the judge will decide... will speak further in new post.

Larissa - posted on 11/10/2011

Bm in my case really has no case at all. She will try to say that I spanked the girls too much and too hard. She has no proof because it's just not true. She tried to tell our CASA that they wake up every night having nightmares about me... we asked the girls this past weekend if they have nightmares, one said no, the other said she has nightmares because of the movies BM lets them watch. I don't know what to do about witnesses. Hmm.... guess I will have to start thinking about that. What did your witnesses talk about?

Kirsten - posted on 11/10/2011

We just had our final custody hearing a couple of months ago. BM appealed JDR court so we went as far as we could go in our case. Basically your lawyer will be showing the judge why you are the better choice for parent(s) to the child. In our case, our lawyer presented evidence that BM cannot emotionally, financially, or otherwise support herself; the domestic abuse on her part towards my husband even after the divorce; how she is continuously detrimental to our son's relationships with others (particularly us); etc. I know it seems hard to fill 3 hours just talking to a judge, but it can happen. A lot of our time was spent in questioning witnesses to present evidence and both sides were allowed final statements. Everything the judge ordered was immediately effective. Do both sides have a lawyer? BM was pro se in our case and her entire argument consisted of how she is a great mother and nothing that we presented was true. The judge might have considered her position, if she had shown up to a hearing that allowed her to present any evidence whatsoever at the final hearing. I guess if BM has no case and your lawyer can submit clear evidence of BM's instability as an individual and parent, you should be ok.

Good luck, I hope this was helpful!

Larissa - posted on 11/05/2011

No no no, it's way more than outfits being too small.... i mean we have school record of them missing 12 days and being late 13 days in their first two months of school, and we have proof she smokes in front of them constantly and so on.... but witnesses... not sure. And Im guessing a GAL is the same as a casa.... ours was only 50 bucks a piece...

Bri - posted on 11/04/2011

i dont think you can get custody bc the outfits are too small, are the kids old enough to be attending school? if so, you can always have teachers testify etc.

Bri - posted on 11/04/2011

usually GALS are expensive they want 500 a piece from both sets in our case!

Penny - posted on 11/02/2011

A written synopsis is the attorney's point of view of what happened in court. It's kind of a summary of what happen in court. I guess it depends on if that is what the judge wants or not. Our court turned out totally in our favor. BM wanted parenting time to short supervised visits indefinitely and for hubby not to get any kind of legal rights. Hubby wanted joint legal custody and a parenting time schedule to split holidays, one weekend a month (we live 8 hours away), etc. There was no grounds to restrict hubby like BM wanted so we got everything we asked for. I think Kyleigh is talking about professional witnesses to testify. Like is the CASA testifying? Have the police ever been involved? Maybe hubby's boss or someone with clout...

Larissa - posted on 11/02/2011

A written synopsis? What the heck did they end up writing? How did it turn out? That's the weirdest thing I ever heard, what state is this in? Any witnesses for what? I mean I have plenty of people that can say when we picked the girls up their clothes were always dirty and too small. Other than that no one in my family can talk about how horrible BM is...

Penny - posted on 11/01/2011

Check the laws in your state. Our court date was for joint legal custody and parenting time so it may be different than physical custody. Ours lasted two three hour days. I can't remember quite how it worked but Hubby was petitioner so he presented his side first. Our attorney had him on the stand and she asked him lots of questions to get his 'side' out. Then I believe he was cross examined by BM's attorney. Then the GAL testified on our visits and what BM was telling her and our attorney pretty much showed she had a bias towards BM since her son and BM graduated in a class of like 18 kids. Then the supervisor at the supervised center where our visits were being held testified and got cross examined and I was the last one to testify on his character. Her attorney had no questions for me. Then BM presented her side. Her attorney tried to counter everything we said and our attorney pretty much put her in her place. BM had her dad testify on behalf of her but he ended up testifying for us. He said hubby was a good guy, the kind of guy you'd want your daughter to bring home and suddenly his wife just told him they were done so he had to 'change' his perception of hubby even though he always thought he was a good guy. (Hahaha!) Then because of things BM testified our attorney had me go back up there and testify that hubby was never emotionally abusive, a decent guy, etc. Her attorney tried to question me and say I hadn't known hubby that long to say he was so 'nice' but I pretty much said I was a good judge of character and I wouldn't have married someone like who she was describing. She didn't like it.. Lol.. Anyway, then the judge said he wanted both attorneys to submit a written synopsis of what happened in court within 30 days and he would make a decision within 90 days.

Kyleigh - posted on 11/01/2011

Do you have any witnesses to supeona?