I am about to go to court for visitation for my son. Unfortunately I have to represent myself in this matter. Dont worry my wife does not have a lawyer either. She has basically lied her way through everything. She says I do drugs, am violent and a bad a Father. None of these things are true and she has hid my son from me for 2 months.
I just want to know if their are any pointers anybody could give me for representing myself and how not to screw this up? Any ideas would be good ones. Also has anybody gone through this before and what should I expect?

Thank you for the link.

There's a saying that anyone that represents themselves in court has a fool for a client. If you can't afford a lawyer isn't there a service in your area where you can get a free consultation?

I have been through this all before, and here is what I learned ahead of time and it was very helpful.

#1 Speak only when addressing the judge and do not interrupt the opposing party.

#2 Do not attack your ex in any way. State your case as blunt and forward as you can without dragging anything negative about her into the situation unless it is very relevant. Do not turn it into a he said she said. If the other party does, let them, but do not respond unless the judge is looking for a response.

#3 Dress for court. I know that this should go without saying, but you will get more respect from the judge if you appear respectably.

#4 Write up everything ahead of time that will help you with your case so that you have a good reference guide to read from. It saves you looking like a bumbling baffoon, and you can state your case clearly and concisely.

#5 Have a definition of the time that you would like to receive and figure out all of the transportation issues and everything else ahead of time. This gives you the appearance of being well put together and more deserving of the time you are requesting.

These are some of the things that I did, and everything went pretty much in my favor. If you don't go in asking for ridiculous things it is more likely that it will go your way. I had everything laid out before I went into the court room from transportation to meals so that if asked I had an answer. Good luck, and I hope some of this helps.

Thank you all for the support and advice. I never thought I would ever find myself in this situation.

You will be on trial....

Dress for a Courtroom.

Every move you make will be scrutinized.

This is not the judges first day. They will quickly spot the liar.

Never speak out of turn (it was mentioned above but cannot be said enough).

Let your love and support be obvious to the judge.

Just let her talk....Give people enough rope, they usually hang themselves.

Good Luck.

Learn the laws that govern child custody in your state and county.

Then you address the law. Chances are that your ex has no legal presidence for hiding you child from you, and that therefore she is at risk of violating your custody rights.

They have to prove you have drug or alcohol problems before they can take away your custody rights. If there is no legal history that you have these problems then chances are they have to grant you custody rights.

You need to request that the judge tell you the legal basis for his decisions. Look up your rights on line. See if you can get legal representation on a charity basis.

The best way to start visitation is to do so in a manner that is best for your child. One of the best ways to achieve this goal is to pick the child up from school on a Friday and drop him off to school on Monday. This gives the child an eight hour break between parents in a well known environment.

It also means that you don't have to see your ex and thus the child does not have to listen to one or both parents being dicks. The rest of the thread has some good advice. I am in Australia and our system is very different.

Good luck, all children need their dads.

P

Op, im very concerned for you. Ive done four options, fought a traffic ticket in what michigan calls an informal hearing (just a fake judge and a cop, no lawyers), criminal court for a misdemeanor with a court appointed attourney. Representing myself, i was chewed up and spit out. With the court appointed lawyer i wasnt helped much by the lawyer and went behind his back and called the prosecutor and victim regarding the victims inability to go to court. (even this was better than representing self).

Another one i did was i hired a real (corrupt) lawyer for a speeding ticket to the tune of 18 mph over. very very corrupt county all around who basically wanted me to fight the ticket and knew it was bs...

And i also called "michigan legal aide" at one point with a landlord dispute. Didnt actually go to court but these people were great. You just had to be broke (i worked at walmart).

When i represented myself, i was disrespected, had extreme anxiety to the point i could barely speak, and wasted my time. There was definitely corruption there too, but atleast the county didnt sell my info to lawyers to send me junkmail lol....

Anyway, if you cant afford a lawyer, are you POSITIVE you cant get a free one? Michigan legal aide was non profit, had damn good lawyers that you would otherwise pay for, they werent junk like court appointed attourneys. Just doing pro bono work with good quality. I think theyre required to do a certain amount for free every year

I dont feel that youre going to get anywhere by yourself.