BUILDING YOUR CASE FOR MODIFICATION OF CHILD CUSTODY

After a divorce or child custody case is over, it is quite common that
the parties will have to return to court in the future to adjust a child
custody arrangement. This is especially true if the children are very
young when the first order is entered. As time passes and children grow,
their needs may change. The needs for a toddler are very different from
the needs of a teenager. When requesting a change of custody, the requesting
parent must show that since the last order, there has been a change in
circumstances such that it is in the child’s best interest to modify
the last custody order. Preparation and good record keeping can vastly
help prove a case.

One way to help any future case is to keep a calendar. Keeping a calendar
is especially useful when the other parent is not exercising all of his
or her parenting time. Marking down when the other parent skips days or
overnights will allow you in the future to show a judge that the other
parent is not exercising his or her parenting time over a long period
of time. This will make it easier to adjust the parenting time schedule
to reflect the schedule that the other parent is actually exercising.

Another
. If a concern is that the other parent is not keeping the children on
a schedule or taking them to inappropriate places, then social media can
bolster your claims. Taking screen shots of check-ins, photos, or updates
can be powerful evidence to support your claim. Keep a binder or other
notebook of printed out screen shots, or save them all to a particular
folder on your computer to help keep yourself organized. This can also
be important to preserve the other parent’s social media posts just
in case they delete them later.

Finally, keeping a diary of interactions can help. If there was a conflict
between you and the other parent, then make sure to write down the details
of the event as soon as possible. Date the entry, and keep all the entries
in the same place, like a spiral notebook. One or two unpleasant interactions
may not be enough to prove your case, but meticulously demonstrating months’
worth of conflict is powerful evidence.

We
in proving to a court that a child custody arrangement needs to be modified.
Call us today at (732) 479-4711 to discuss your case and how you can
start gathering evidence to support your claim.