If you are going through a child custody case, you know that not everything will turn out perfect. Sometimes, you go in there with an idea of what you want to see, but you don’t get exactly what you asked for. Perhaps you thought your custody would be a 50/50 split but your ex ended up getting more time with the children every week. Yes, the courts will do whatever they believe is in the best interest of your child. But what if you aren’t happy with the results and you want to appeal your child custody order?
Occasionally, the courts will make mistakes and might not know the impact of these mistakes on your life and the life of your children. As a parent, you want to ensure that your rights as a parent are taken into consideration. You have the right to appeal a child custody order even after the order has been rendered. You should always become well-informed about the laws in your state and what you can do moving forward with the help of your attorney.
What You Can Do
If you and your attorney have decided that an appeal is legal and accepted in your case, you have some other decisions to make and questions to answer. For instance, do you have a final and complete custody order? If a conclusion has been decided by the judge in your case and you have met a conclusion, there is a good chance that you will be able to move forward with an appeal. If you have instead been issued a temporary order, this is a non-final order and an appeal might not be given to you until the final order is in place.
One thing that you should note about your custody appeal is that you cannot introduce new testimony or ask the court to hear from anybody new as a witness when you go through with an appeal. The courts will review anything they might have missed in the last case and make their decision based on this. In most cases, the courts will look at the documentation without you being present. The judge will review everything presented to them and use the standards that follow the best interests of the child to reach the best decision.
If you believe that your court case has not been taken seriously and now you are struggling as a parent or your child is affected by a bad order, you have the right to appeal. However, you should always move forward with the help of an experienced attorney at this time. Call us at the Montes Law Firm to find out what we can do for you when you need us the most.
