The big problem is she will stoop to any level. She had 6 sessions with a therapist and got a glowing letter stating she is a totally dedicated mother up against it with a not so dedicated father.
That therapist never interviewed you or has sessions with you, right? Then all the T ought to state is what she knows, and she has absolutely no
firsthand knowledge about you. Your lawyer ought to have
objected to that letter or at least the portions that strayed into sheer conjecture and Ex's misinformation about you. Instead the T should have been put on the stand. I recall my lawyer telling me he always objects to letters and such... ."I can't interrogate or question a piece of paper."
I'm getting the idea your lawyer is not a trial attorney? You're getting band-aids when you need strategies, solutions and proactive legal advice.
If you haven't had a Custody Evaluation, then ponder whether you need one. An experienced CE will administer psych tests as well as conduct sessions with both parents and the child. But you have to have a good one, not just the cheapest or one pulled out of a hat.
Have you ever gone to court to ask for more custodial authority? You ought to have basis for it since you've got a history of your Ex sabotaging your parent repeatedly, when one loophole or assumption is closed, she just finds another. In prior posts over the years I've encouraged our members, when faces with such obstructions, to get detailed orders. There are portions of orders have purposely have vague boilerplate such as "reasonable telephone contact" or "mutually agreeable exchange location". The court expects parents to work out the details without needing the court's intervention. It works in most cases, obviously not ours.
Yes, if you ask for custody and becoming the Residential Parent for School Purposes, the court may not go that far, at least at first. (It took me two returns to court over a few years to get both custody and majority time.) But... .hopefully it will take you seriously as a parent who has tried to be an involved parent but is constantly shunted aside and sidelined on one pretext or another. Documenting a
pattern of obstruction ought to counteract her claims that you are virtually an absentee parent.
Don't be timid or afraid to ask for a lot. Courts seem to like to rule somewhere in between both sides. If you want a little more time and she demands 99%, you won't get much improvement since you're not asking for much. If you ask for a lot, perhaps even a custody change!, and she demands her typical 99%, court may choose a middle ground and you get perhaps as much as equal time.
So work up a strategy, better yet, more than one. Maybe your lawyer needs to consult with more experienced attorneys in the area. I had alternate weekends at first but within a couple years I was able to move up to equal time. The schedule was 2/2/3 also known as 2/2/5/5. One parent has Mon & Tue overnights, the other has Wed & Thu overnights and then they alternate the weekends. Why not make that your fallback goal? Putting these ideas together... . What does your lawyer think about asking for custody as a starter motion? Then be ready to fall back #1 to
Decision Making or
Tie Breaker status so you can sidestep her obstructions. Thirdly, have fall back #2 as equal time such as with that 2/2/3 weekly schedule.
Do you see? Come up with Strategies, not just First Aid.
