A child is the one that creates a special bond between the parents. When eventually those parents go through a divorce, it gets really hard for the child to understand what would happen. A parent can always file up for a full custody, instead of sharing.
There are several steps involved in filing for custody of your child.
Choosing the Right Lawyer
Make sure that you are choosing the right lawyer. This means that you are going to want a lawyer who has some experience with custody cases. Therefore, you are going to need to ask for a lot of references. It is great if the lawyer has worked cases that are similar to your case and the judge that is over your case. It is a good idea to make sure that you have a certified family law specialist. In most cases, you want to open the case in the country where the child residents.
Filling A Request
Complete and review all of the forms that are necessary for a custody case. You will have to fill out the request for an order of custody, give all of the facts that are going to support your request and supply all of the necessary information. It is a good idea to request physical and legal custody of your child. This is when you are going to need to carefully review all of the forms because this is the basis for all of your custody arguments. Therefore, they are going to be very important to your case.
Filing The Forms
You are going to need to go to the courthouse in order to file the forms. The fees are going to vary depending on your location where you are filing them. If for some reason that you are not able to buy the fee, then you can ask for a waiver of the fee. But you are going to need to show that you have some type of financial hardship in order to receive this waiver.
Serve The Petition
You are probably going to need to hire someone like the sheriff to take a copy of the filed documents to the other party so that they can look at them and respond to them. Once the other party has been served with the petition of full custody, then the other party will have the ability to respond back. Once they have given their answer, then you have the option of agreeing or disagreeing with their answer. You will need to file a default judgment if the other parent decline to file an answer.
Mediation
Filing for custody is to take part in a mediation so that you can submit an agreement. Some courts are going to require you and the other parent to take part in a mediation before you go into court. This is so that you have the ability to make an effort to agree on the terms of the custody so that no one has to go to court.
Therefore, you are going to be able to avoid the process of a trial. Once this happens, then the agreement can be signed by the court and that will be the custody order.
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