This week’s video answers the question if it’s possible for a judge to modify the initial finding of a child custody order.

This was a question that I got from one of my viewers and in her question to me she was wondering whether it's possible once the judge has made a final order about custody that at some point in the future that judge or another judge can go in and modify the initial finding for custody?

Let me explain that a little more specifically. Say you were in court a couple of years ago and the judge awarded either you or the other party sole decision making over your children. It is possible that years down the road one parent or the other can go back to court asking the court to modify that decision.

It could involve modifying the arrangement to joint decision-making and the same applies to parenting time schedules. In a case a judge may make a parenting time schedule where one parent is getting every other weekend for example years down the road it is...

In this video I am going to show you what family law cases are going to look like from start to finish including important legal terms you need to know.

These are some of the important Legal Terms I am going to go over along with their definitions: petition, file a petition, motion, complaint, petitioner, plaintiff, respondent, defendant, being served, discovery phase, consent decree of dissolution , consent judgment, mediation

To get a family law case started somebody has to file a petition in court and a petition might also be known as a motion or a complaint. Regardless of what is called in your jurisdiction whoever filed the petition is often called the petitioner. That is the person petitioning the court and there are some jurisdictions where the petitioner might be called the plaintiff.

The person who has not petitioned the court is called the respondent or the defendant. That person is the one who is receiving the petitioners ie being served with the petition. If you are the...

In todays video I’m going to talk about how to prevent the judge in your custody or family law case from getting really angry at you. Or if the judge is on your side, how to make sure you keep him or her on your side.

The main thing you can do this is to be reasonable in what you are asking for. Deciding what is reasonable is, I know, sometimes hard to gauge because this is your life, this is your children, etc.

When you're really biased it's hard to see the other side it's hard to see the other side as being reasonable but to the best of your ability when you're going through a case when it comes to whatever request that you're making or whatever position you're taking
I think that you should always put your self in the position of the judge. The judge is ultimately is the most important person in your case.

I recently had a couple of different cases where a judge thought that my clients positions are unreasonable and in one case my client didn't see where his position was...

If you want to relocate with your child or you are fighting your spouse relocating this is what you need to have ready for the judge.

I've been getting a lot of questions from people who have the issue of relocation in their child custody case. Either they want to move out of state, city, town, country with their child or they are the parent who do not want their child to move out of state, city, etc.

So what do you need to show the judge if you are the parent who wants to be able to relocate the child or if you are the parent who is fighting against the other parent relocating the child.

Step 1: You always start with the best interest factors. So wherever you are located go to your States statutes and the child custody factors also known as the best interest factors for your state. I talk about the best interest factors in a lot of my videos.

If you want to download a free list of the child best interest factors go to my website http://commandthecourtroom.com and you can get a...

Proving a parent is unfit in a child custody case is not easy. Here are a few examples of how to gather evidence when dealing with substance abuse, child abuse or neglect. I've also included a real case where I represented a father with 2 children where the mother was addicted to methamphetamenes.

If you are seeking sole custody of your child one way to do this is to prove that the other parent is unfit. Proving unfitness of a parent is not always easy to do. In my practice I have been able to prove unfitness of a parent by proving evidence of drug abuse, alcohol abuse, alcoholism, etc.

This includes both illegal drugs and prescription drugs. If the other parent has a history of drug abuse for a significant number of years this should be brought before the court. Also important is whether or not they are currently in a drug or alcohol treatment program. Have they been through treatment or rehab but continue to relapse?

However they don’t have to have a drug or alcohol problem...

In this video I talk about my experience with my daughter's bout with hand, foot & mouth disease how it relates to preparing for your family law case. 

I recently had a very exhausting weekend. As you some of you may know from my videos, I have a 5-year old daughter. Well one night she could not sleep so I stayed up with her all night. The next day when her father picked her up from school she was crying.

That night she still could not sleep and was complaining of her feet itching. I tried everything to relieve her pain, cold rags, hydrocortisone cream, Benadryl…but to no avail.

I started looking on the internet and could not find anything. She then developed sores on the palms of her hands and sores by her mouth.

I did more research and found out that she had what is called Foot, Hand, Mouth disease which is common in preschoolers. I found out it is not a serious disease but it is very viral. It has to run it’s course, the sores need to heal and...

In every state family law courts have a strict set of "rules," which describe the procedure courts follow in a family law cases. If these rules are broken there can be serious consequences.

These rules govern things like the types and content of documents that can (or must) be filed, the various deadlines that attorneys (and self-represented litigants!) must comply with, etc.

If you or your attorney do not adhere by these rules you could suffer some really serious consequences for both yourself and your family for the rest of your life.

I had a case recently where the attorney did not follow the rules and it caused her client to suffer some serious consequences in her case. We were litigating a really hotly contested divorce case that had been going on for about a year. Some of the issues in dispute were child custody, division of property, parenting time and child support. However, but the biggest bone of contention was spousal maintenance and attorney’s fees.

I represented...

Never give up the fight in your child custody case even if you feel your case is hopeless.

2 real cases where my clients had given up hope but we ended up winning the battle.

You may feel hopeless because you think your spouse has the upper hand and you may just feel like giving up. In the course of my practice I have had a lot of clients tell me that it’s not worth it, it’s too expensive, it’s too stressful and they want to give up.

However in every case after I have talked to my clients & stressed how important it is to have rights to have their child in their lives, not one of them chose to give up and kept fighting.
This week I have gotten a few emails from my viewers. In one email the mother was feeling very discouraged. She had downloaded my best interest checklist at and after reviewing all the best interest factors she came to the conclusion that she was basically ‘screwed’ in her custody case and the father was going to get everything he...

There are actions you can take now to increase your chances of success in your family court hearing.

Hi I'm Wendy Hernandez and in this video I’m going to give you a few real world examples of ways to increase your chances of success in your divorce or custody case:

Let’s say your ex-spouse is alleging that you have mental health issues or a mental health issue and you are denying it. One thing you can do to squash that accusation or allegation is go out and get a psychiatric evaluation. These evaluations do come at a cost however you could save money from the get go instead of having to fight this custody or divorce battle for months.

Now it may be that you do have some type of mental health condition but there is no shame in that. In that case you would show the other party what the condition was and what kind of treatment you are receiving and that you are complying with a course of treatment the doctor has prescribed for you.

By going above and beyond you are...

If you wait to gather your evidence & witnesses for your custody court hearing it can cause dire consequences.

You could lose parenting rights or custody of your child.

Today I want to share a piece of advice that is really very simple but is really powerful if you use it. If you are in the middle of child custody court case or think you will be in the near future, don’t just sit by and wait for something to happen. Take action now before the worst could happen.

If you do nothing, the other parent may be able to get a final order without you.

The reason I am giving you this advice is that in the last week alone, I’ve had a couple of people come and consult me and some really bad things had happened involving their families. It is because they didn’t take action until it was too late.

A man had receive paperwork from his ex-spouse and mother of his child and he claimed she was trying to terminate his parental rights. In the paperwork their were instructions to...