Checklist To Protect Your Child From The Judiciary

From: http://dadsusa.org/

The below 10 points are information you must know, and actions you must take, to protect you and your children from our present day judicial branch.  They were developed through hard experience of fathers who got sole or joint custody, which are unusual outcomes.
 

1. The only place a father has an undisturbed relationship with his children, is when he's married to the mother.  The parents have complete autonomy from government control and scrutiny.

When the first document is filed in a divorce or paternity case, permanent control of your child and 1/4 to 3/4 of your future earnings, is transferred to the government.  A trial judge assumes the primary decision maker status, in about 9 out of 10 contested cases will assign the child to live with mom, and then put numerous restrictions on dad.  This judge cares nothing about you or your children, may completely cut you off from them, and make you pay hundreds to tens of thousands of dollars a month to the mother. 

That is a blatant violation of constitutional law (14th Amendment Due Process and Equal Protection).  Good luck finding an attorney who will argue that for you.  A few dads have asserted their rights without an attorney, and to date the judges have either improperly applied the law, or simply refused to issue a ruling at all.

The above bad things happen to good men on a routine basis, and you want to do everything you can to avoid a child of yours coming under a judge's jurisdiction.  You do this by staying married to the mother, or not having sex outside of wedlock.

2. If a custody action is filed, you have forever lost legal control over the child.  There's nothing you can do about that, but you can at least minimize the intrusion into the relationship to your child, and how much wealth will be taken from you.

If you live in the same home as your child, do not move out of that home.  By far the most significant order in a custody case, is who has the primary custodial (residential) status.  You want that legal designation, and have about a zero chance of getting it if at the time of trial your child isn't primarily living with you, and you are providing more than 50% of the child's physical care.  You can see why few dads get custody. 

3. If you can't get primary custody, you can still maximize court ordered parenting time, and the judge might even let you have some decision making such as over education, healthcare, or extra curricular activities.  You'll get that by missing no opportunity to spend time with and interact with your child, including phone calls and sending letters and packages.  This creates a hurdle for a judge to give you less parenting time than you are already exercising, and positions you in the future return to court and ask for more.

4. Don't threaten or do anything negative to the mother.  She can take the child out of the country and deny your Christmas visitation, she can file false abuse charges against you, and the judge will probably do nothing to her.  But if you do something as minor as have your child deliver a message to her, or scold her in front of the child, they might use this to limit your parenting time.  

They're looking for any reason to give mom everything, and you can create a hurdle to block this by not doing anything that could be remotely considered negative to her.  Never touch the mother in anger.  You will spend thousands of dollars to plead guilty or be convicted of domestic violence, for life you will be restricted from even touching a firearm, and you might have permanent restrictions on your parenting time.  At least one dad who made statements over the telephone which could have been construed to be threatening, was sentenced to 3 years in federal prision. 

5. Two terrible things that happen in some cases are false abuse charges and Parental Alienation Syndrome (PAS).  Some attorneys advise their clients to file false abuse charges, and will do so in the most hurtful way such as the beginning of the Christmas holiday or summer parenting time.  Getting to know the adults around your child, such as her teacher, coach, doctor, and daycare provider, will help deter false charges. 

PAS occurs when a child has little contact over an extended period of time with one of his parents, and the custodial parent projects great hostility to the excluded parent.  Under this circumstance over time the child forgets his positive feelings towards the excluded parent, and adopts the disposition of the custodian.  To observers the child appears to hate or even fear the excluded parent.  If you carefully follow the recommendations in this article, you are unlikely to have your child turned against you in this manner.

6. Work to change the child custody and support laws in your state capitol.  Ideally you will go there and start knocking on doors, to get child support based on the cost to raise kids (present system based on your income and includes massive hidden alimony), and to block judges from taking decision making from unmarried parents (instead it is shared between them on a time-divided basis).  If you can't go in person, click on the PayPal link below, and support us in getting the laws changed.  Even if we're not active in your state, we effect you by lobbying at the federal level, and any state where the law is improved increases the chances that it will happen where you are.

To encourge legislators in your state capitol, work with others to write letters to the editor, etc.  Don't put your name on any public article or website.  Don't mention to your attorney or in any court proceeding, that you are involved in father's rights.  The judge and attorneys will retaliate against you through your child.  Have your mom, friend, co-worker, or anyone with a different last name than yours, do the public activities.

7. Build personal relationships with and make financial contributions to state and federal legislators, which will give them a real incentive to ensure your life in all respects is good.  You begin that process by working on their campaigns.

8. Keep gaining knowledge about the system, by searching the Internet for father's or parent's rights discussion groups and local meetings, and going to watch court hearings.  This will enable you to learn all the legal options you have available 

9. Be prepared to appeal.  That requires a court reporter at every hearing, which you should have anyway, and a filing bond of $1000 or so.

10. Consider representing yourself.  In case after case the attorney totally sells out the father, which makes a worse outcome that if the dad had even poorly represented himself.  Some big advantages are the other side is racking up attorney fees and diminishing their resources, you will be able to accurately present your case to the judge, and the legal system will see you are not among the 99% of the population that are sheep who can be taken advantage of.

To effectively represent yourself you need to be smart, tenacious, slow to anger, very adaptable, have a partner who can watch the proceedings and give you feedback, and have an attorney to consult on certain procedural questions.  If you don't have all of those, you are almost certainly better off hiring an attorney, even though they are at some level going to work against your interests.