Our client was once in a very loving relationship which produced an awesome child. Unfortunately, the other parent succumbed to the temptation of drugs and slipped into a life of crime for the past several years. Our client’s family rallied around the child and the remaining parent (our client) to provide a safe environment while the other parent was absent. As luck would have it, the absent and addicted parent found salvation and sobriety with the assistance of our justice system recently. The terms and conditions of such also required the payment of child support.

The returning parent sought full custody of the child to limit the exposure of child support and was appointed an attorney to assist in the effort. Through baseless allegations the returning parent petitioned the court seeking to gloss over the fact that the past several years had been difficult for everyone. Our office took on the case representing both the grandparents and the remaining parent using separate attorneys and separate theories of custody.

Our office took the case mainly because the family wanted the absent parent in the child’s life. They believed in forgiveness and second chances. They understood that the child very much loved the absent parent and wanted to foster a relationship despite the past. The returning parent pressed on for full custody right up to the moment we called our first witness at trial. During a break, the other side considered what had been offered all along and decided to settle without the need for further testimony.

In the end, the grandparents obtained official standing in the child’s life by being granted joint legal and physical custody with their daughter and the returning father. The mother retained the bulk of the custody schedule while ensuring the child would see the father every other weekend to begin to make up for the lost time. We are hopeful that the father will remain sober and continue to foster a relationship with the child whereby further time can be agreed upon by the parties without the need to return to court.

We report this case because often one party does not have “any skin in the game.” In other words, when someone else is paying your legal fees there is very little motivation to settle a matter even in the wake of a common sense offer to settle. By the same token it takes a composed client to understand that although the case should settle it often won’t until the other side sees you are prepared to litigate the matter in court. In addition, sometimes it is necessary to have every interested party enter the arena to ensure that years of child rearing is not upended by the rights of a returning parent who suffers from the machinations of a mind damaged by years of drug abuse.

Taking a case to trial does not have to be expensive necessarily. Limiting the bulk of your efforts to trial preparation, while the case is pending, is paramount when you aim to keep costs low. Sometimes, the client pays to be ready for trial knowing that is what is needed to obtain the settlement. The key is working with your attorney to keep those costs down. So be sure to discuss cost saving techniques with your attorney and be open to focusing on a commonsense approach.