Discusses a variety of issues concerning child custody, including court structures, living arrangements, recommendations on avoiding court battles, and advice on working with lawyers.

Updated and revised with seven new chapters, a new introduction, and a new resources section, this landmark book is invaluable for women facing a custody battle. It was the first to break the myth that mothers receive preferential treatment over fathers in custody disputes. Although mothers generally retain custody when fathers choose not to fight for it, fathers who seek custody often win—not because the mother is unfit or the father has been the primary caregiver but because, as Phyllis Chesler argues, women are held to a much higher standard of parenting. Incorporating findings from years of research, hundreds of interviews, and international surveys about child-custody arrangements, Chesler argues for new guidelines to resolve custody disputes and to prevent the continued oppression of mothers in custody situations. This book provides a philosophical and psychological perspective as well as practical advice from one of the country’s leading matrimonial lawyers. Both an indictment of a discriminatory system and a call to action over motherhood under siege, Mothers on Trial is essential reading for anyone concerned either personally or professionally with custody rights and the well-being of the children involved.

The legal system requires mental health professionals to provide research summaries to support their evaluations in child custody cases. Contributions from leading developmental researchers, legal professionals, and clinicians describe how scientific evidence is properly used in court. Timely and current, this book helps evaluators access the best information to fulfill their obligations to their clients and the court. The Second Edition adds chapters on family observation, parental alienation, and sexual abuse. Forensic psychologists, family lawyers, and judges will be equipped with the most current information to aid in custody decisions.

This book presents the latest data-based approaches to understanding and assessing relevant child, parent and family factors in child custody evaluation.

Keeping a journal for Child Custody. Getting a divorce is often a complicated process, which becomes even more complicated when there are children involved. By keeping a journal for child custody, you will smoothen the entire process, and reduce the stress involved on you and your child. The journal will also be extremely useful to your attorney, and will often be used by the court to help with the process. Documenting the process should become a habit; and this journal is the ultimate tool to developing this habit. EVERYTHING that happens to your child, whether good, bad, or neutral should be recorded and dated. Ones memory will often fail to hold up in court when in court or mediation in regards to child custody. What this journal contains: Visitation planner: The visitation planner at the beginning of the diary contains space for you to quickly plan your visitations. This information is crucial for keeping to agreed upon times and dates and should be recorded as soon as each agreement is made, to avoid any later disputes. Input sections for: Date Pick up and drop off time Pick up and drop off location Communication Log: A communication log is one of the most important aspects of keeping a journal for child custody. It ensures that you are protected and prepared for all agreements and conversations that will happen between the other parent, lawyer etc. Inputs include: Time, date, start time and length of conversation Nature of the conversation, who initiated it, what was covered Main points raised Additional information Visitation log: Visitation is often one of the trickiest parts of managing child custody. The visitation log in this journal is designed to ensure both parties uphold their agreements that were made in regards to visitation, and that the child's best interests are kept at the forefront of the agreements. Other notes: A section for any other notes related to child custody. Remember: everything related to this process should be recorded. Any information that may not fit into the other sections should be written here. It may include things such as your child's mood after a visit, something your child says about their other parent etc. This section will be used almost every day used correctly, with each note dated as instructed. If any other sections should run out, continue to use this section. Tips for keeping this journal: As well as the information included above, the journal contains tips about how best to keep this journal. Book Features: 8.5 x 11 inch in size 120 total pages - Multiple 'sections' per page (Should last around 1 year) Perfect bound with a beautiful soft matte cover Printed on white bleedproof paper Durable Tips for keeping a child custody journal Remain Balanced - stay objective: While you want to do everything you can to get custody of your children, make sure you also write down the good things the other parent does. Remember, this is about what is best for your children, not what is best for you or for the other parent. NEVER LIE OR FALSIFY INFORMATION or you will ultimately lose the battle in court. Include Smaller Details Don't forget to include the smaller, everyday details with your custody journal. Specifically, you'll want to take note of: Comments your child makes about the other parent (Positive and negative)

Find out how evaluators, mediators, and judges deal with the issues of relocation in divorced families In the past, the relocation of a parent or child in custody cases was rarely a problem for divorced families—there was little conflict and little need for court intervention. But with the growth of shared custody, more fathers involved in parenting after divorce, and an increase in litigation between conflicted parents, relocation has become a complex issue that’s difficult for evaluators, judges, and public policymakers to resolve. Relocation Issues in Child Custody Cases offers a firsthand look at how evaluators investigate, predict, and make recommendations; how judges reach decisions based on those recommendations; and how individual states deal with relocation cases. Relocation Issues in Child Custody Cases examines how evaluators, mediators, and judges can best facilitate an environment where a child has an ongoing relationship with two parents, regardless of where each parent lives. This unique book looks at how the landscape in relocation cases has changed since the California Supreme Court’s landmark 2004 ruling in the LaMusga move-away case, examining relevant topics, including individual state statutes on relocation; a survey of courts in the United States; the functions of an evaluator; how a judge analyzes data before reaching a decision; parental conflict; domestic violence; change of circumstances; primary residence; and the process of developing parenting plans. Relocation Issues in Child Custody Cases examines: whether negative outcomes of parental relocation after divorce were a result of pre-existing conflict and domestic violence whether the “best interests of the child” is an acceptable standard in relocation cases investigative models for evaluators “for the move” and “against the move” biases—and how to reduce them a format for analyzing evidence in relocation cases the risks and benefits of presumptions in family law matters and much more Relocation Issues in Child Custody Cases is an essential resource for evaluators, mediators, judges, caseworkers, child psychologists, family therapists, and child advocates.

After countless decades of observing the emotional and financial devastation resulting from on-going court battles over money and children, we confront a daunting truth- it is still the law in every single state in America that, following parental separation, the amount of time you spend with your children directly determines how much child support you will pay or receive. Moreover, the way for you to end up with more money is to get custody or more time with your children, or to restrict the other parent's time with the children. However, in spite of our current adversarial court system, where one side wins and one side loses, we no longer need to assume that separated parents will be in conflict over child support, or that they need to start court action against each other to determine the child support amount. We now have a SOLUTION to the need to engage in unnecessary battles over custody simply to obtain more child support dollars for their client. Parents now can UNHOOK CUSTODY FROM SUPPORT. It is time to recognize both parents as worthy and important to their children, regardless of their ability (or inability) to earn an income, and regardless of whether they spend more, or less, time with their children. It is time to recognize that divorcing parents need to be encouraged to concentrate on taking care of their children's needs, rather than on fighting costly and time-consuming battles in court. For the sake of the countless children raised each year by separated or divorced parents, this book calls for a dramatic change in the way parents go about sharing the costs of raising them. We are now able to offer to courts, family law attorneys, divorce mediators and, most importantly, families, better tools to avoid these destructive contests.