A child custody dispute can threaten your time and your relationship with your children. That’s why you must defend your parenting abilities and the contact you have with your kids. But if the other parent has filed a motion to modify custody or is trying to restrict your access to your kids, then you might be feeling stressed and overwhelmed trying to figure out how to protect your and your children’s interests. It can be especially challenging to find a path forward when the other parent is lobbing multiple allegations against you.
If you’re struggling with your custody dispute, don’t worry. There are child custody defenses that you might be able to use in your case to secure the fair outcome that you want and that your children deserve. Let’s take a closer look at some of them.
Ways to defend your and your children’s interests in a child custody dispute
The specific approach that you take in your case is going to depend on the facts at hand. Having said that, let’s look at some commonly utilized and effective strategies that you might be able to deploy in your custody case:
- Contradict the other parent’s claims: The other parent is probably making multiple allegations that attempt to draw your parental fitness into question. Don’t let the judge in your case be swayed by misleading or inaccurate information. Instead, gather and present evidence that contradicts the other parent’s arguments.
- Attack the reliability of witness testimony: The other parent is going to heavily rely on witness testimony to present their case. If you don’t address the credibility of those witnesses, then the judge will likely take their testimony as truth. So, look for ways to chip away at the reliability of these witnesses’ testimony, such as by pointing out inconsistent statements or bias or motivation to testify against you.
- Address the other parent’s fitness: By seeking a custody modification or a custody arrangement that restricts your time with your children, the other parent seeks to increase the amount of time that they get to spend with the children. That’s not a good thing if there are issues with their parenting abilities. Therefore, you could demonstrate that the proposed custody arrangement is inappropriate given the issues with the other parent.
- Focus on your children’s best interests: When addressing child custody, the court is going to issue an order that it thinks is in the children’s best interests. Therefore, as you present your case, you’ll want to speak to those interests. It’s a broad standard, so you’ll have a lot to work with. Just be sure that you don’t get tangled up in attacking the other parent without somehow tying it back to your child’s best interest.
Don’t leave your child custody dispute to chance
There’s simply too much at stake to try to improvise any aspect of your child custody case. It’s in your children’s best interests, then, to thoroughly prepare your legal arguments while tailoring them to the law.
We know it can be stressful to navigate the child custody process, but don’t let your fear and the uncertainty of the situation lead to procrastination and half-hearted arguments. When your children’s well-being is on the line, that’s the time to be proactive and aggressive.
