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Child Custody Coach® provides a proven coaching service designed to increase your knowledge and understanding of your child custody situation and to help elicit practical child custody solutions and strategies from you based on your specific need. The goal of the coaching sessions is for you to gain practical information and strategies making you more resourceful and creative and enhance your performance and reduce your attorney fees as you move forward with your child custody case.
The following coaching services are offered to help those who are faced with child custody issues and struggling or caught up in the complexities of the family court system.
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"I've spent tens of thousands on attorneys but Steven Carlson The Custody Coach is the best money I have spent since my divorce began. The knowledge and insight he has is priceless. The advice and direction he gave me was invaluable."
Dennis Hearne - Oak Hills, CA
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Child Custody Issues
It is imperative that one is educated, informed, organized, and prepared throughout the child custody process, especially when those in the family legal system become involved.
It is equally important that one is also coached and informed on how to present themselves and how to work with, communicate, and present information and concerns (i.e. allegations of abuse, move-aways, child's wishes, best interest of the child, parental alienation, the parental alienation syndrome or PAS, etc.) to those in the family legal system and/or those in the child custody community who can influence how custody will be awarded (i.e. attorneys, judges, mediators, evaluators, social workers, therapists, counselors, psychologists, etc). Since each of these individuals have been exposed to different levels and types of professional training, education, and work and/or personal experience, each can and often will act, react, and communicate differently.
From my experience, attorneys generally do not properly prepare and continuously inform and educate their clients throughout the child custody process, as they may not have the time, patience, nor the desire to do so. Further, this would be very costly for the client (i.e. attorneys on average in California charge $300-$350 an hour for their services). When an attorney fails to properly prepare and continuously inform and/or educate their client throughout the child custody process, the client can and often will experience feelings of uncertainty, neglect, abandonment, and as though they have been left completely in the dark by their attorney.
Some clients feel as though they are walking on eggshells and may be reluctant to ask their attorney questions in fear of their questions being interpreted as "stupid" or too intuitive. What makes matters worse is the incremental billing and high costs one can be charged by their attorney (i.e. .10 of an hour @ $300-$350 an hour) to answer lingering questions a client may have, even if they are simplistic.
When one works with The Custody CoachTM, one can freely ask questions, express themselves and their feelings without the worries, stresses, pressures, and time/money constraints that often burden clients when interacting and communicating with their attorney. I offer monthly coaching plans at a flat monthly rate. If the question is such that it is best addressed by ones attorney (i.e. very specific legal question), than this question can be better prepared or conjoined with other specific questions before presented to the attorney in order to make the best use of the attorneys time. This alone can significantly reduce ones attorneys fees.
Additionally, answering many of the ongoing and lingering questions a client may have can help bridge and fill much of the communication gap between the client and their attorney and also help the client stay focused. One of the biggest and yet most common mistakes made by clients, which can exponentially increase attorneys fees and costs, which attorneys often complain about, is the client's unconscious use and reliance on their attorney for therapy. In these highly emotional and high stake child custody situations, the unconscious use of an attorney for therapy can be minimized and unneeded costs can be significantly reduced by working with The Custody CoachTM. Sometimes it is only a matter of listening, or acting as a sounding board, or answering lingering or ongoing questions a client may have, which can significantly reduce costs and keep one sane throughout the child custody process.
In more complex situations one may need help with researching, strategizing, planning, preparing their case, or finding specific family codes or case law. This is not to be construed or considered to be a substitute for legal advice, as only an attorney can provide one with legal advice, but rather a matter of providing information. I can recall one occasion where a client sought my help to find information on a specific 730 child custody evaluator as they felt the evaluator appointed had the propensity to be partial. With my research and the information I provided, this client was able to have this evaluator removed from their case.
Further, The Custody CoachTM will listen to the client, assess the situation, review pertinent documents (i.e. declarations, evaluations, custody orders, stipulations, time logs, etc.), and help the client strategize, organize, prepare, present, and identify those things which are significant, relevant, and important to their case that can impact and/or influence child custody. This collaboration between the coach and client is extremely important in that this allows the client to have better control in managing their situation and confidence in communicating and interacting with those in the child custody community without sole reliance upon their attorney.
Working with The Custody CoachTM can afford such benefits as being better informed and educated throughout the custody process and at the same time significantly save on attorneys fees and costs. In this scenario, it is a win-win situation for clients and their attorneys with a potential for greater results in the family legal system. To illustrate, an attorney can gain a more content and educated client with streamlined goals and more realistic expectations and the client can save money by reducing unneeded and high attorneys fees and costs.
For a description of the Child Custody Coach's format & fees click here.
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730 Child Custody Evaluation
As it is important to be properly educated and coached throughout the child custody process, similarly, it is also imperative that one is educated and coached throughout the child custody evaluation process. In California, these evaluations are generally appointed or contracted by the court pursuant to Section 3111 of the Family Code or Section 730 of the Evidence Code (sometimes referred to in California as a 730 child custody evaluation).
Therefore, it is important that one is also coached and educated on how to work with, communicate and present themselves and concerns (i.e. abuse, move-aways, child's wishes, best interest of the child, parental alienation, the parental alienation syndrome or PAS, etc.) to the child custody evaluator (i.e. licensed clinical psychologist). Child custody evaluators have biases, as does every other human being, and thus, will be influenced by appearance, perception, and interpretation.
Attorneys rarely properly prepare and educate their clients for these child custody evaluations, as they are not trained to do so, nor have the experience and training needed to help their clients involved in these child custody evaluations. More importantly, it would be even more uncommon to find an attorney who has actually participated and has personally been through a child custody evaluation them self. In any case, for an attorney to properly educate their client would be extremely costly for the client (in California, attorneys on average charge some $300-$350 dollars per hour for their services). In this scenario, quite often clients experience feelings of neglect, abandonment, and as though they have been left completely in the dark by their attorney. Further, the evaluator's final report that is produced from the child custody evaluation (730 child custody evaluation) is given heavy weight in determining custody by the courts.
When one works with The Custody CoachTM on a custody evaluation, one can freely ask questions, express themselves and their feelings without the worries, stresses, pressures, and time/money constraints that often burden clients when interacting and communicating with their attorney. I offer monthly coaching plans at a flat monthly rate. If the question is such that it is best addressed by ones attorney (i.e. very specific legal question), than this question can be better prepared or conjoined with other specific questions before presented to the attorney in order to make the best use of the attorneys time. This alone can significantly reduce ones attorneys fees.
In addition, The Custody CoachTM will listen to the client, assess the situation, review pertinent documents (i.e. declarations, evaluations, custody orders, stipulations, time logs, etc.), and help the client strategize, organize, prepare, present, and identify those things which are significant, relevant, and important to the child custody evaluator. This is extremely important and allows the client to have a greater comfort level when communicating and/or interacting with the child custody evaluator.
Working with The Custody CoachTM on a custody evaluation can afford such benefits as being better informed and educated throughout the child custody evaluation process and at the same time significantly save on attorneys fees and costs. In this scenario, it is a win-win situation for clients and their attorneys with a potential for greater results in the child custody evaluation, and thus, the family legal system.
For a description of the 730 Custody Evaluation Coaching format & fees click here.
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Breakthrough Parenting® Skills
It is imperative that one is educated, informed and taught parenting techniques from a certified parenting instructor who has been trained and is familiar with the latest parenting techniques, which are also excepted, adopted, and promoted by those in the child custody community. Parenting style and parenting techniques will particularly surface in child custody evaluations or 730 evaluations and can influence the evaluator and their recommendations.
Therefore, I feel it is important that one is also coached and educated on how to apply parenting techniques, and how to communicate and respond effectively to their children. This will not only better the way a parent responds and communicates with their children, but will also better the way in which their children respond and communicate with their parents. This also includes understanding parental alienation and ways in which one can respond to children showing signs of the Parental Alienation Syndrome or PAS.
When one works with The Custody CoachTM (with flat monthly coaching fees), clients can be more informed and educated on parenting techniques, which can vastly improve the parent-child relationship. In this scenario, it is a win-win situation between parents and their children and clients and their attorneys with a greater potential for results in the legal system.
For a description of the Breakthrough Parenting® Coaching format & fees click here.
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Attorney Fees & Fee Arbitration
I feel it is imperative that one is educated, informed, organized, and prepared when filing for arbitration. There are specific Business and Professions codes as well as case law that supports and addresses areas of concerns of fees charged and the handling of ones case by an attorney.
I feel that it is important that one is also coached and educated on how to work with, communicate, prepare, and present themselves in asking for attorneys fees from the other party or in arbitration.
Attorneys generally do not properly prepare or educate their clients in regards to attorneys fees, as they generally do not have the time nor the desire to do so.
For a description of the Attorney Fees & Mandatory Fee Arbitration Coaching format & fees click here.
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