He said that I would get custody. He mentioned giving her drug tests, having her living quarters evaluated, get records from mental institute she was in, etc. (none of this ever happened)
My ex always came up with excuses for me needing to keep my daughter, you name it, she came up with it. I would keep my daughter 4 or 5 days straight at times. (I kept a calendar) When my daughter wasn't with me, she would usually be with my ex's mother. About a month before court, my ex quit giving excuses and would either say my daughter wanted to see me or that she had to work.
We get to court and my ex says that she's a hard working mother who is struggling and needs me to keep her alot because she works so much. She states that she goes to work and comes home to keep my daughter and she doesn't go out and party. I had a picture that I obtained off the internet (one of her friend's web pages) of my ex and a friend at a bar with a time/date stamp on it at 1am, a time my daughter wasn't with me. My lawyer did not present this even after I brought it up during court. My ex sat her car on fire, while pregnant. He did not bring this up either. My ex brought up a conversation where she told me that i'd never see my daughter again and to take her to court. She lied and said that I had refused to buy our daughter diapers and that I did not want anything to do with our daughter. I had a transcript and audio recording on cd of this conversation that I had provided to my lawyer pre-court. When she started lying about this in court I brought it up with my lawyer and he said ok, but did not provide that evidence either. Also way before we went to court I brought up hiring a P.I. to follow her around, he said I wouldn't need one. I had a two page list of excuses that my ex has given me over the years that wasn't brought up or shown to the judge. Many other things weren't brought up.
The judge ruled that he felt both parents were good parents. He awarded custody to my ex and stated that "now if she was a partier things would be different". Well i'm thinking to myself, she is! He said we should stick with our current schedule since it is working out. What schedule? There is no schedule. What if she decides to not let me see her for a couple of weeks or so. There was no set schedule, no guidelines to go by, no nothing. The judge says leave everything the same.
I'm not complaining about keeping my daughter so much, but her mother obviously doesn't want her and if she wants custody, she should take that responsibility. She gets a check each month from social security for my daughter, off of me. But my daughter is with me most of the time.
My main question is, was there actually a conflict, and maybe the reason why my lawyer did not fight this thing for me and present evidence that I had.
Is this right, for there not to be a set schedule for me to have my daughter. My ex can get mad and change her mind anytime?
Is there anything that I can do, since my lawyer didn't present certain evidence?
Thanks and sorry for long post