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My daughter and I never should have been separated in the first place.  That my wife did that, along with everything else is very much reason that I have full custody of my daughter, as my wife actions and decisions have plainly not been in my daughters best interest.  Period. 

And separating my daughter and I did not calm things down, it made it all worse.

Again, I literally have no more money, and no lawyer has been any good to me.  I could not have done any worse had I represented myself not knowing a single thing about the law.

As long as we are married she has to have my signature to get my daughter a passport.  So I guess it's good that the judge refused the divorce when I first asked.

But the second lawyer I had was telling me that I couldn't make any requests for changes in custody or parenting plans etc with a pending appeal.  And at this point I am not dropping the appeal.

What about going to the DA to have charges of perjury, assault, etc, filed against my wife?

My wife assaulted me while I was holding our infant daughter and chased me out of the house.  I called the cops.  While I was at work a few days later she took off with my daughter and got a protective order.  And again this is purely a civil case. At our hearing the police report didn't get in because my first lawyer didn't subpoena the police.  My wife perjured herself severely on the stand, even contradicting herself within her own testimony, and I have some proof of that, including the police body worn camera footage.  I requested a custody evaluation at the hearing but the judge refused.  So she got temp sole custody and I got supervised visitation once a week for 2 hours.  But it was 3 months before I saw my daughter the first time, and the first 6 times she cried the entire time, whereas before she had been happy and loved falling asleep in my arms. She refused to let my mom see my daughter when she came to visit.  I got a new lawyer and we requested a new trial to subpoena the police and the judge refused. I have a recording of my wife saying she does not have to talk with me about child-rearing.  She even stated that she was refusing to talk about it with me during the hearing.  She refused to go get checked out for post partem issues.  And I have other people who witnessed some of her behavior that was alienating and isolating.  She refused to breast feed my daughter one night, and another time refused to recognize that a rash my daughter had on the back of her head came from uncleaned breast milk, instead tried to use it as a manipulation tool.  She lied about conversations with the first pediatrician.  Just some examples. But my first lawyer didn't get any of it in.  I asked for a divorce at the hearing and the judge said no.  On top of which my wife is from another country and we were in the process of getting her residence.  She disappeared 3 weeks before the interview so she is now in the country illegally.  She had threatened on a couple of occasions to take my daughter back to Israel, once even stating so she could grow up and join their army, which of course scared me, and it's not my daughters war.  I am now waiting on the appeal date, all the briefs are in, so it should be soon that we get a date, hopefully in the next month or two.  Then she changed pediatricians without me knowing, but there was a 5 month gap between pediatricians, and the new pediatrician refuses to speak with me.  My daughter was diagnosed with a major muscle development disorder (it took me 2 months to get my daughters medical records), which I believe comes from her not getting the proper love and attention she needs.  My wife put my infant daughter in day care 5 days a week at less than 1 year old.  My daughter is now 15 months old and has just been crawling for a couple of weeks, when she was almost crawling at 5 months.  Full custody for me is the only acceptable outcome from this.

I have found a generic motion for custody evaluation.  I understand now that what it is is just a request for another hearing date so that we both can present evidence and testimony.  And I am completely out of money, literally, I had to borrow money from my family to pay rent and child support.  It has already cost me at least $20000 in legal fees.  My savings and retirement are gone, my credit has taken a major hit.

Thank you for your replies

Thank you for the links.  While they are informative about what the evaluation process is, what I need is how to present the motion to request a custody evaluation to the judge.

During the first hearing my lawyer asked the judge for an evaluation of my spouse and the judge denied it.  My wife severely perjured herself during the hearing, and I have some evidence to back this up.  I have some collateral contacts that my lawyer didn't subpoena, who can also back up things that I'm saying and further show that my wife was lying about some things.  I even have a recording saying that she does not have to explain what she is doing with my daughter, and she refused to have discussions about child-rearing.  None of this made it into court.  The judge ruled her credible and gave her temporary sole custody.  I'm appealing on several grounds, and waiting for the date, which will hopefully be in the next month or two.  But I no longer have money to pay a lawyer and must proceed on my own.

I do not know of course what the outcome of the appeal will be.  But I have to consider that no matter what there is still the fight to get my daughter back.  So I'm having to figure out how to get custody of my daughter when we never should have been separated to begin with.  And what truly needs to happen is a deep evaluation.  But I seem to be up against a tall mountain to getting the right thing done. 

When a motion for custody evaluation is filed do I have to include all the supporting evidence with it?  Or is it simply a document requesting that a hearing date be set?  And then at that hearing is it basically another trial where witnesses and evidence be presented in the correct manner and cross-examination take place? 

Does anyone have examples of the actual motions to request custody evaluation that have been filed with courts so that I can see how they are setup and what is included in them?

Again, the law states that either party can request an evaluation "for good cause shown"  I'm trying to find out how to show good cause to the court so that they will order that the evaluation be done.

Thank you

Hey all,

I have to represent myself from here on out.  I'm planning to hire a custody evaluator soon, my case is currently waiting for an appeal date.  I'm in Louisiana.  Do I have to wait for the appeal to be done and jurisdiction be handed back down to the trial court?  BTW it is a purely civil case.  The statutes say that either party can request an evaluation for good cause shown.  How do I go about showing cause?  Are there examples of requests for custody evaluation somewhere?

Should I subpoena police to bring in evidence that was not brought in during the hearing?  Should I subpoena witnesses, neighbors, family, etc?  Does this need to be done to request the eval, or just show all the material to the evaluator?

Thanks