If you\’ve found this page it\’s because you\’ve been searching for a way to modify your existing custody agreement, for any of a number of reasons. One of the most contentious issues for both male and female parents is the custody of the children when a marriage or long-term relationship ends. You may be a parent who feels isolated from their children and wants to spend more time with them but are being prevented from doing so. Or you might be a parent who is concerned with the amount of time and access your ex has to your children.
In short you want to make a change to the existing visitation schedule in one way or another, and there are court procedures and processes in place to help you do this.
There are two main legal elements to modifying a child custody agreement and these are:
- Court Family Services Mediation
- Court Hearing
When a parent requests a child custody modification the first thing that happens is a Court Family Services Mediation date is set and both parents are required to attend this, but without their attorneys being present. The idea of this meeting is to hopefully settle the modification to the child custody order without the need for a court hearing – basically for both parents to discuss the matter with a mediator present.
Now the fact that it\’s referred to as \”mediation\” often tricks people into thinking that it\’s not actually a legal meeting of any kind, so they don\’t prepare in advance. This lack of preparation and proper legal advice is what results in people seeing the court system then ruling against them, which we\’ll explain shortly. We can not stress how important it is that you get professional legal advice before attending the Court Family Services Mediation session so you know what to expect and what you should and should not say.
- Court Hearing
If the Court Family Services Mediation meeting was unsuccessful then a hearing date will be set instead and during this hearing the presiding judge will refer to the family services mediator for their evaluation of the custody case in front of them. Then in most of the cases the judge will rule with the mediator\’s recommendations and there is nothing you can do to stop them from doing that. This is exactly why you need to be very, very well prepared for the Court Family Services Mediation session, or you can wind up having a court ruling against you even though you have done nothing \”wrong\”.
The vast majority of parents treat the Court Family Services Mediation meeting as some kind of preliminary meeting before the \”main event\” but nothing could be further from the truth. You need to spend time with your attorney to plan exactly how you\’re going to approach this meeting and try to plan for every eventuality. Remember that neither you nor your ex will have their attorney present at this meeting so the better prepared you are the more likely you are to be successful in having the existing child custody ruling modified in your favor.