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Elliot S. Schlissel is a father’s rights attorney who has been representing fathers for more than 45 years in all aspects of family law court proceedings. He handles custody matters, visitation agreements, divorce cases, and child support issues. Elliot and his associates can be reached for consultation at 516-561-6645, 718-350-2802 or by email to schlissel.law@att.net.
Custody Issues Before LitigatingDiscuss settlement possibilities with your attorney and the realistic potential you will be successful if you take the custody case to trial. Custody battles can be emotionally taxing and expensive. Unless you are willing to fight the battle to the end and pay the expenses related to the battle, you should consider settling and obtaining the best possible parenting time access situation with your children.
Child Support and Custody Issues
It is extremely important the court not feel you are litigating the issue of custody to avoid paying child support. If the court feels the custody battle is a camouflaged issue involving child support it will have a devastatingly negative effect on your possibilities of obtaining residential custody of your children. It should be pointed out in New York, even if you settle a case with both of the parents having equal time with the children, the parent who earns more money will pay child support to the other parent.
Settling and Schedules
Work out your schedule prior to discussing settlement on custody and parenting time issues. Know what your schedule is. See if your family and friends’ can provide a support system. Have a back up system to help you take care of your children in the event you have an emergency, either related to work situations, illness, accidents of family members, or health issues involving yourself.
Parenting Time Schedule
The standard parenting schedule for the non-residential custodial parent is every other weekend, every other holiday, one or two dinners during the week and access on Father’s Day and the child’s birthday. If you are going to settle the case, negotiate for more than the standard visitation schedule. Customize the parenting time you spend with your children to deal with your work and life circumstances.
It is important you take into consideration the interaction your children have with your parents (their grandparents) and other family members. Children enjoy spending time with their cousins and other children of a similar age to them. Make sure your home is set up to provide a stimulating atmosphere for the children when they spend time with you. Children get bored very easily. You need to carefully take into consideration the children’s needs to be entertained, excited, and intellectually challenged.
Cordial Relationship With The Children’s Mother
This is a topic I have spent many hours discussing with my clients. You may be getting divorced because the children’s mother is a lousy human being. You may be divorcing her because you hate her guts. You also may be divorcing her because you consider her to be simply a pain in the butt. However, she is still always going to be the mother of your children! When the case is over, the court proceedings have finished, and the lawyers are gone, you are going to need to deal with her. This may require more character, patience, and reasonableness than you even needed to use when you interacted with her while you were married. Take into consideration your communication with the children’s mother promotes the children’s best interest. Put your children’s best interests over and above the anger, anxiety, and problems you have with their mother. Deal with her as best as you can. Even if you litigate a very nasty custody battle, at the end of the day you are still going to need to deal with her. Get used to it. For the sake of your children, put your pride, anger and aggravation aside!
In a situation where you are a father who has had an active relationship with your children, and you are now facing a divorce, what should you do to maintain your relationship with your children? To start with, you should do everything in your power to maintain the relationship you had with your children while your marriage was intact after your marriage breaks up. This means you should spend as much quality time with your children as is reasonable. To become the residential custodial parent, showing you are the nurturing parent involved in your children’s daily lives is extremely important. You should seek to have, at a minimum, equal parenting time with your children. If your custody issues are going to be litigated before a judge, you must develop a strategy so you can demonstrate to the court you are involved in the children’s activities on a daily basis. You must show you have a support system, which will help take care of your children while you are working or unavailable. You must provide the court with a realistic presentation demonstrating how you having custody of the children will be in the children’s best interests.
If you are a father who seeks custody of your children, you must choose an attorney who understands your motivation and your desires. Fathers are currently entitled to equal rights to obtain custody of their children. However, even though on paper fathers have equal rights to obtain custody of their children, statistics indicate there is still a bias within the legal system favoring mothers. The attorney you choose to represent you should have experience regarding father’s rights issues. He or she should have a history of representing other fathers in custody disputes. You do not want an attorney who is just getting started and using you as a guinea pig in his efforts to develop a winning strategy on father’s custody cases. Before hiring an attorney, read about the attorney online. Look into his or her previous experience in representing fathers in custody cases. Check to see if he or she has published articles with regard to custody issues concerning fathers.
To watch today’s video blog, please click on the link below:
Elliot S. Schlissel is a father’s rights lawyer. He represents fathers in all aspects of matrimonial and family law including child support hearings, visitation, divorces, and custody proceedings. Elliot and his associates can be reached for consultation at 516-561-6645, 718-350-2802 or by email to schlissel.law@att.net.
To watch today’s video blog, please click on the link below:
Elliot S. Schlissel is a father’s rights attorney. He represents fathers in custody litigation, child support litigation, and issues involving visitation rights and parenting time. He and his associates can be reached for consultation at 516-561-6645, 718-350-2802 or by email to schlissel.law@att.net.
Please click on the link below to watch today’s video blog:
Elliot S. Schlissel is a father’s rights attorney who was has been representing fathers for more than 45 years. Elliot and his staff of attorneys handle divorce cases, child custody and visitation, and all aspects of family law proceedings. He can be reached for consultation at 516-561-6645, 718-350-2802, 1-800-344-6431 or by email to schlissel.law@att.net.
Children’s Best InterestsA gender neutral standard is utilized by courts in New York State to determine custody based on what is in the children’s best interests. There are a number of factors which courts consider on the children’s best interest issue. Among those factors are the following:
Custody Litigation
If the issues concerning custody and parenting time cannot be resolved amicably, custody litigation ensues in both the Family Courts and the Supreme Courts in the State of New York. When these matters are litigated, each of the parents has the right to show how giving custody to him or her would be in the child’s best interests. The parent’s gender no longer is a consideration in determining who should receive custody of the child or children.
Children Need Both Parents
All children have one father and one mother. Custody litigation is not a winner take all situation. Even if one parent receives sole custody of the children, the other parent should be entitled to extensive parenting time with the children. The best way to handle custody issues is to try to resolve them out of court. Litigation itself may create levels of animosity which is detrimental to the children.
There was a time in the 1970s when it was almost a foregone conclusion mothers would receive custody of their children unless they were unfit. Custody today is determined without discrimination as to the gender of the individual asking for custody. Mothers are no longer first on the custody line! The theory that mothers, because of their biology, are a better parent is a debunked myth. Mothers no longer automatically receive custody. The “tender years doctrine” which held mothers should receive custody of young children because a mother had a greater ability to provide love and care for young children and were better suited to meet young children’s needs is no longer accepted in the courts of New York. The argument that mothers had some type of biological superiority to become the residential custodial parent of children is now considered to be only a myth.
Fathers play an extremely important role in raising their children today. Fathers who are the principal caretaker of their children are becoming more and more common in America. Changes in who will receive custody of their children have been impacted on by changing gender stereotypes. The courts giving equality to both sexes concerning the issue of who should be the child’s custodial parent. The development of father’s rights attorneys who effectively litigate on behalf of fathers seeking custody of their children have also impacted on helping fathers receive custody.
To watch today’s video blog, please click on the link below:
Elliot S. Schlissel is a father’s rights attorney. Elliot has been representing parents in child custody, CPS and ACS investigations and other family matters for more than 45 years. He and his associates can be reached for consultation at 516-561-6645, 718-350-2802 or by email to schlissel.law@att.net. The phones are monitored 24/7.
Please click on the link below to watch today’s video blog:
Elliot Schlissel is a father’s rights attorney. He has been representing fathers in child custody matters, visitation issues and all other aspects of Family Law for more than 45 years. He can be reached for consultation at 516-561-6645, 718-350-2802 or by email to schlissel.law@att.net.
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