Episode 148 Just the dad talking again

Today, I want to talk about what happens in the courtroom and how to behave in there.

Always address the Judge or magistrate as “your honor” or judge. I have never been in front of a magistrate, but I would call them “Judge” or look up on the internet how to address them. Keep in mind that bad things are going to happen in this courtroom no matter what. In any other court case a continuance would be awesome, but what “Child Support” does is calculate what ever amount the judge orders retroactively back to the birth of the child. I did not know this at the time, but what you want to do is establish a date in which “Child Support” starts accruing

and you want to make that date as close to the present date as possible. This is very important! Remember, this is a “FAMILY” action. What is happening here is that there is a division of family and their assets going on here. The lawyers and judges and the entire court system want to assign a monetary value to everything possible, the problem with that is that there is no way to put a price on family life, but they have a lot of power so they do just that, all the time. Since American law is on the side of “Child Support” all parents are deadbeat parents to these judges and magistrates. Pay no attention to the lies or embellishments of the other side and their lawyers. Their job is to make you look as bad as they possibly can in front of that judge. Your job is to get that number down as low as possible. Whatever number they spit out, if I haven’t heard it before, I am going to balk at it, cut it in half, everything and anything to get it as low as possible because what that judge says is usually what they write in the order. The Judge and the lawyer for the other side just want to get this case done so that they can move on to the next one. I would use that to my advantage. I would spit out a lower number and say if we can get here, we can get this entire case done right now.

If the judge agrees to that number, the lawyer for the other side usually will go along with the judge and try to get their client there too. Make sure to also have the medical care (health insurance for that child) taken care of because the paying parent will also have to be on the hook for that. In the case of a loss of a job, if one parent is named as the provider of health insurance that parent will be responsible for that health insurance until “Child Support” runs out no matter what happens. If the insurance company goes under, or if that job is lost for whatever reason “Child Support” does not care about anything but that judgment. Remember that, there is no “Ill get you next month” “Child Support” wants their money right now.

All episodes are created and edited by Sean L.