Steadycase

No attorney? We make trial prep notebooks & guides for family court. Organize your case. Be prepared. Not a law firm. Not legal advice.

[Steadycase @getsteadycase]

https://t.co/ZHvQYSDSfc

[Steadycase @getsteadycase]

A custody hearing notice is written in the court's language, not yours.

The Notice Decoder in our Your Custody Hearing Quick Guide is a worksheet for that one document: structured fields that pull out what kind of event this is, where, and before whom — from the notice itself, in your hands.

It reads your papers with you. It does not tell you what to argue.

$9, print-at-home PDF, any state.

https://t.co/Vy1AjZkykI

[Steadycase @getsteadycase]

"Custody" is not the word Texas uses.

The Texas Family Code calls it conservatorship, in Chapter 153 of Title 5, along with possession and access — Texas's terms for parenting time. Child support is Chapter 154, and the UCCJEA is Chapter 152.

Searching Texas sources with Texas's own words finds more than searching with the words other states use.

https://t.co/lxgHIm7oRm

[Steadycase @getsteadycase]

North Carolina keeps its rules of procedure somewhere most people do not think to look: in the statutes.

The Rules of Civil Procedure are codified at G.S. Chapter 1A-1. The Rules of Evidence are Chapter 8C-1. The administrative General Rules of Practice for the Superior and District Courts are published separately by the Judicial Branch.

So "check the rulebook" is three different books in North Carolina, and the Judicial Branch's court-rules index names all three.

https://t.co/p5r3YHbVgm

[Steadycase @getsteadycase]

California's Judicial Council forms are statewide. An FL-series form is accepted in every superior court.

Many counties then add local forms of their own, which the statewide index does not carry. That part is a question for your own county's court.

https://t.co/imPmVupr8X

[Steadycase @getsteadycase]

Florida writes family law into Chapter 61: dissolution of marriage, support, and time-sharing.

The evidence rules are a different chapter, 90. Grandparent visitation is a third, 752.

Free full text, from the Legislature.

https://t.co/bZMnEoCymE

[Steadycase @getsteadycase]

North Carolina publishes three child-support worksheets, not one. Worksheet A is primary custody, B is joint, C is split.

The state's own calculator runs all three, and the page says plainly that it produces an estimate rather than a guaranteed amount.

https://t.co/mHtbFKJKv7

[Steadycase @getsteadycase]

Your lawyer said, "Document everything."

Nobody says what that looks like on a Tuesday night, with the screenshots piling up on your phone.

The Document Everything Method is a new free guide from Steadycase. Three parts:

First, every event becomes one log line with five fields: date, time, who, what happened, and where the file is saved. "On my phone" is not a location.

Second, a cropped screenshot is a reminder, not the record. When the record is a conversation, keep enough of the thread that a later reader can see the sender, the date stamps, and the messages around the one that matters.

Third, keep two piles apart. The archive is everything you saved, in dated folders with searchable names. The working packet is the thin stack you rebuild for the next known date.

Twelve pages, print at home.

https://t.co/rfmKeSwl2W

[Steadycase @getsteadycase]

Two Steadycase quick guides, two different jobs.

What the Court Looks At in a Custody Case explains the standard custody courts apply, and groups the themes that recur state after state.

Your Custody Hearing explains the court date itself: the notice, the room, the usual sequence, and pages for recording what happened.

Both are $9, print at home, and work in any state.

https://t.co/J8BAc6IDVM

[Steadycase @getsteadycase]

Florida administers child support through the Department of Revenue rather than through the court clerk, which surprises people who go looking at the courts site first.

The Child Support Guidelines are written at section 61.30, and the Department's own page is where the state publishes the material for them.

https://t.co/rbQj4XXtG0

[Steadycase @getsteadycase]

California keeps family procedure in more than one book, which is the part that catches people out.

Title 5 of the California Rules of Court is the family and juvenile rules. Civil procedure and discovery are in the Code of Civil Procedure. Evidence is the California Evidence Code, on its own.

https://t.co/QDvxLato4U

[Steadycase @getsteadycase]

Maryland runs an interview-style filing tool. Maryland Guide & File asks questions, fills the Judiciary's own forms from the answers, and is free to use.

It does not cover every case type. The Judiciary's family forms index carries the rest.

https://t.co/J34pfKcmkb

[Steadycase @getsteadycase]

California's official child-support calculator comes from the Department of Child Support Services, and it produces an estimate, not the order.

Read the notice on the page before you rely on a result. It currently flags that recent federal tax changes are not yet reflected.

https://t.co/MHDuSgTKlj

[Steadycase @getsteadycase]

North Carolina writes divorce and custody into General Statutes Chapter 50, and the UCCJEA, the interstate custody rules, into Chapter 50A right beside it.

Free full text, from the General Assembly.

https://t.co/dG02wkvRGw

[Steadycase @getsteadycase]

Maryland writes custody, divorce and support into one article of its code: the Family Law Article. Title 9 is custody. Title 12 is the Child Support Guidelines.

Free full text, from the General Assembly.

https://t.co/IMoqnHnf3s

[Steadycase @getsteadycase]

Shared legal custody does not mean an equal-time schedule.

Decision-making and the living arrangement are two separate questions, and courts answer them separately. An arrangement can pair shared decisions with a schedule that is not an even split.

Different states, different words. Same two questions.

[Steadycase @getsteadycase]

Georgia's official code is free to read, but the door is unusual. The state designates LexisNexis as its publisher, so the O.C.G.A. opens through a one-time agree-to-terms click.

Title 19 is Domestic Relations.

https://t.co/oTKT4DJhyR

[Steadycase @getsteadycase]

California runs legal aid and court self-help as two separate systems, and both are free.

https://t.co/qsrhN60lY6 is the statewide legal-aid guide and provider finder. Separately, every superior court staffs a self-help center and a family law facilitator, in the courthouse.

https://t.co/HGcW5gvvwh

[Steadycase @getsteadycase]

Florida keeps legal aid and lawyer referral in two separate places.

https://t.co/D2fTp0tvlf is the statewide legal-aid finder. It lists the program that covers each county.

Referral runs separately, through The Florida Bar.

Free Florida guide: https://t.co/STx3fqrKgo

[Steadycase @getsteadycase]

North Carolina runs one statewide forms portal for the whole court system, searchable and filterable by topic. The fee-waiver route has its own numbered form there, the Petition to Proceed as an Indigent.

Court costs are set by statute but vary by case type and locality, so the Clerk of Superior Court in your county is who confirms them.

https://t.co/2k9VaOwcTs

[Steadycase @getsteadycase]

Florida runs two official self-help sites. They are not duplicates. https://t.co/inyyrgcLIz carries the statewide family-law self-help section and the approved forms index. https://t.co/L3aDJn5oWR is the plain-language companion, built to walk a self-represented filer through finding and filing a form.

Start with the one that matches your reading style.